


I'm Going to Place my Bet on Us

by Caora



Category: Banana Bus Squad, I AM WILDCAT (YouTube RPF), MiniLaddd (YouTube RPF), VanossGaming (Video Blogging RPF)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Reality, Betting, Blood, Blowjobs, Car Accidents, Hospitals, M/M, Skype, Texting, handjobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 17:17:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4714094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caora/pseuds/Caora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“...If you win this bet, and by that I mean, if you buy the next person who walks in that door a drink, and then take them out on an actual date- and we’ll work out the details of that later, then… I’ll wash that piece of shit truck of yours, and if I win, then you have to wash my car, and I’m expecting you to give it a good polish too - nothing halfassed. I need to be able to see my reflection in the paint.” </p>
<p>"Fine, who the fuck am I supposed to seduce?" Tyler asks, shooting a glare at Evan as he gets up. </p>
<p>Just as Tyler asks that question, however, the door to the bar swings open and Craig walks in.</p>
<p>(Collab with SeargantButterNipples on Tumblr)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Going to Place my Bet on Us

Tyler leaned over the bar and watched Evan with amused blue eyes, clutching onto his drink with one hand and his friend with the other. "You totally have to have a crush on someone, Ev, come on!" he's in the middle of whining. "Tell me who it is! I won't tell, I promise," he says, eyes wide and earnest.

Evan merely shrugs, neither confirming or denying that statement, and takes another sip of his beer. “I’m not giving that information out to you,” he says, peering at him over the rim of his glass. “And you can’t just _ask_  about my crush- _and I’m not saying that I have one_ , but you can’t ask about something like that without telling me yours first. It’s not very fair,” he almost smirks, eyebrow raised.

Tyler practically rolls his eyes, cocky smirk finding its way onto his lips. "Easy, dumbass. I don't have one," he nearly taunts, as though it's something to brag about. His slight drunkenness is enough to egg on his brazen attitude, but not enough to slur or impair his speech or thinking yet. "Yet," he quietly adds, glancing around the room and frowning at what he sees.

“‘Yet’?” Evan repeats, eyebrows raised in interest, and he follows Tyler’s line of sight and glances around the room as well. “You looking for someone? Need me to be your wingman?” he teases, playfully elbowing him in the arm and immediately begins scoping out the room for potential dates.

Tyler pauses and takes a sip of his drink. "Maybe. Only if you don't have a crush on me," he casts a wary glance at Evan, eyes sweeping around the room. "I have a good feeling about tonight," he says, shifting in his seat and watching the door.

“Yeah?” Evan hums in amusement, and then smirks mischievously at him. “You finally going to grow a pair and actually make a move on someone for once?” he teases, watching his face for a reaction.

Tyler immediately narrows his eyes, setting his drink down and leaning forward to glare at Evan. "Are you fucking challenging me, you bitch?" He demands, eyes fixed on Evan and mixed with irritation and pure drive, as though he wants nothing more than to take him up on his challenge.

“You could say that,” Evan smirks slyly at him. “There isn’t a single person in this bar that you’d actually have the balls to talk to _and_  go on an actual date with. Y’know, assuming they’d even agree to go out with you to begin with.”

Tyler chuckles, gently shoving him. "Fuck you," he retorts, looking around the room, before turning back to Evan. "Next person that walks in, dude. I'll go talk to them," he says, the earnest look in his eyes telling Evan that he means it.

An almost evil grin crosses Evan’s features. “Wanna bet~?” he challenges him, placing his glass on the bar counter now that their night was suddenly getting interesting. Tyler shifts suddenly, putting his drink away as well and sitting upright to look around the room before setting his determined glare on Evan.

He sounds just as confident as he always does. "Fuck yeah dude! What're we betting?" he asks, more than game for a bet with Evan.

Evan thinks about that for a moment, and decides that betting him a drink wasn’t enough encouragement to get him to ask anyone out, but wasn’t sure if he was willing to part with any amount of money either. “...If you win this bet, _and by that I mean_ , if you buy the next person who walks in that door a drink, and _then_  take them out on an actual date- and we’ll work out the details of that later, then… I’ll wash that piece of shit truck of yours, and if I win, then you have to wash my car, and I’m expecting you to give it a good polish too - nothing halfassed. I need to be able to see my reflection in the paint.”

Tyler's eyes suddenly narrow, filling with legitimate rage. "Are you gonna talk shit about my brand fuckin' new truck, or are we gonna sit here and drink and pretend you didn't just insult my favorite thing in this town?" he asks, voice cold and low.

Evan shrugs, a shit eating grin on his face. “Win the bet, and maybe you’ll have a new favourite thing in this town and won’t care when I insult your dumb fucking truck any more,” he says, and lightly bumps into his shoulder.

Tyler just sighs, still clearly irked about the insults toward his beloved car. "Fine, who the fuck am I supposed to seduce?" he asks, shooting a glare at Evan as he gets up.

Just as Tyler asks that question, the door to the bar swings open and a curly haired boy in glasses walks in alone. His full attention is on the black phone in his hands and as if on autopilot, he makes his way to the other end of the bar and sits down. He doesn’t seem to notice that they were watching him.

Evan nods towards him and grins. “Go get him, tiger.”

Tyler glares at him for a moment before walking over to the guy, looming over the table with no intention of sitting down. "Hey," he says, leaning forward and resting both hands on the table. "Do I look scary enough?" Tyler asks, flashing him a tiny smile.

Craig looks up when spoken to, forgetting about his phone for the moment, and blinks in confusion. “Uhh… what?” he asks, unsure why or what he was being asked, but would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little unnerved by the six foot something tall stranger wandering over to him the second he sat down to ask if he was scary looking, and had to wonder if he was _supposed_  to be scared of him.

Tyler just chuckles at him, lips curving into a tiny grin. "You're adorable when you don't pay attention," he notes offhandedly, and judging by his face it's hard to tell whether or not he's joking.

Craig was taken aback by that, and could feel his cheeks heating up as he chuckled nervously, gaze flitting away for a second. “Uh… thanks,” he replied with a small smile, lightly biting his lip as he allowed himself to check him out. “You’re uh… you’re not so bad yourself.”

Tyler chuckles at this. "Do you want me to get down on your level, will it make you less nervous? Or should I just compliment you less?" he asks, looking genuinely concerned as he sits across from Craig. "Does that help, or do you need me to stop pointing out how cute you are?" He leans forward, raising one eyebrow.

Even when sitting down, Tyler still towered over him, and fuck if he didn’t find that attractive. Craig chuckles nervously again, and really doesn’t know how to respond to him as he’d never been flirted with so aggressively before (or at all, for that matter), and stares down at his phone. “I uh… I’m… I’m really not that cute,” he laughs, biting his lip again.

Tyler shifts suddenly, reaching over and gently cupping Craig's face with one hand. "Hey," his voice is soft, hand achingly gentle and warm on his skin. He makes sure Craig is meeting his gaze before he says anything. "You are hands down the most precious thing in this bar."

Craig practically squeaks at that, then curses himself for making such an embarrassing sound, and if his face wasn’t red by then, then it was bright crimson by now. He gulps, glancing away for a second then glancing back at him, taking in his pretty blue eyes and soft features, and then looks away again. He didn’t understand why someone so good looking was coming on to _him_  of all people, but he wasn’t about to turn him away either.

“I’m Craig, by the way,” he introduces himself, and debates for a moment whether or not he should offer him his hand to shake, only to end up thrusting it in his direction anyway, cursing himself for being so awkward.

Tyler smiles at him, shaking his hand. "Tyler," he replies, shifting and watching Craig with curious eyes. "What kind of video games do you play, Craig?" he asks, leaning back in his chair.

“Not sure what it says about me that you were able to tell that I play video games just by looking at me,” Craig chuckles, still feeling a little nervous and fidgeted with his phone in his hands.

Tyler rolls his eyes, looking around. "Not many people come to a bar to sit on their phones in the corner all night, dude," he points out. "So," he reaches over and takes Craig's phone, setting it face down on the table. "What kind of video games do you play?" he asks, focused wholly on Craig.

Without his phone to keep his restless hands busy, he dropped them to his lap and played with his fingers out of nervous habit. “Just whatever I find fun at the time really. At the minute, I’m really into GMOD and Dead Realm, and maybe some other games like Batman or GTA or CoD or whatever strikes my fancy really. Typically anything I can play with my friends,” he replies, hoping he didn’t ramble on for too long and was annoying him.

Tyler watches him quietly for a moment, then sighs. "Fuck, you're so adorable," he mumbles softly, clenching his fist tightly and chewing on his lip in thought.

Craig’s chest flutters a little and his stomach flips, and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from smiling too much. “You’re pretty cute too,” he says quickly before he loses courage, glancing up at him sweetly.

Tyler smiles at him, gently nudging his phone back towards him and glancing over at Evan, starting to grow unsure about this for several different reasons. He looks back at Craig silently for a moment, as though considering something in his head.

Noticing his silence, Craig begins to wonder if he did something wrong. “Are you okay?” he asks concerned, desperately hoping he hadn’t crossed a line by calling him cute. Maybe Tyler didn’t like that and he already fucked everything up.

Tyler rubs his face, sighing. "I...I don't know, give me a minute. I'm gonna go get my drink," he replies, getting up and walking back to Evan. He doesn't look at him until he's already got his hand on his drink, and when he does he immediately feels swamped in unwanted emotions.

Evan looks him up and down, raising an eyebrow as he sips at his drink. “Is he that bad?” he asks, and almost looks sympathetic.

Tyler rakes his hands through his hair, voice coming out almost as a whine. "No, but God I wish he was. He's amazing, Ev. I can't hurt him by telling him I did it for a fucking bet," he lets go of his drink to look at Evan and he's never looked so love struck and torn in his life. "He's the fucking cutest thing ever and he gets so flustered and fuck you," he sighs, rubbing his face.

Evan’s expression softens and he now felt sympathetic towards him for an entirely different reason, and he claps him on the back consolingly. “I told you that you might find something you like more than that stupid truck,” he teases with a faint smile. “Want to forfeit the bet?”

Tyler glares down at him. "You're missing the point you dumb fucking short stack!" he snaps. "He can't like someone like me. I'm an asshole," he grabs his glass and takes a sip of it, staring at the wall for a moment. "I...I'm gonna go," he shrugs. "And if you think I'm washing your dumb fucking car, think again," he shoots him a glare, getting up to leave.

“Tyler wait!” Evan exclaims, hopping up off his own stool to grab his arm before he could get too far. “Just… forget the bet for a moment, and drop that fucking self deprecating shtick as well. And…,” he sighs, and looks over Tyler’s shoulder, and smiles at whatever it was that caught his eye. “He’s been staring at you the entire time you were over here, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he _already_  likes you. Just… ask him out, okay? See where things go. Don’t blow your chance at having something _real_  just because you’re scared of hurting him or whatever. This fucking fear of yours is _exactly_  why we had this discussion in the first place. Stop martyring yourself for once and just go for it.”

Tyler pulls his arm from Evan's grip, watching him with narrowed eyes. "If you so much as fucking breathe the wrong way around him," he says, tapping one finger to Evan's chest so he knew Tyler meant it, "You're dead to me. He can never find out about tonight," is all he says before turning around and walking back to sit beside Craig.

“My lips are sealed,” Evan says with a smile and sits back down to return to his drink, watching Tyler walk away.

Craig’s mind was racing with every possible worry or concern as he watched Tyler walk back towards him, curious and anxious about what he was talking to his friend about. They were _obviously_  talking about him, considering his friend very pointedly looked in his direction at one point, which only confirmed his earlier thought that maybe he had done something wrong. “Is everything okay?” he asks, once he was within earshot.

Tyler doesn't say anything until he's sitting beside him again. "Yeah, everything's fine," he replies, tilting his head and watching Craig for a bit, debating what Evan had said.

Craig remains unconvinced, and squirms nervously in his seat. “I’m uh… I’m sorry if I did something wrong,” he blurts out quickly, looking up at him apologetically. “It’s just- I don’t- People don’t-... I’m sorry,” he says again, and bites at his lip.

Tyler reaches over, his thumb brushing Craig's cheek. "You didn't do anything wrong, it's fine," he gets up, growing tired of the bar scene. "Do you wanna...walk? It's way too cramped in here," he pauses for a moment then adds, "I won't like, murder you or anything," as he watches Craig.

Craig considers his request for a moment, before nodding and getting up after him. “I didn’t think you were going to until you said that,” he jokes in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood a little and to help calm some of his own nerves.

Tyler flashes a grin as he walks over to pay for his drink, shooting Evan a glare before he leaves. "At least I made you feel better. Nice and safe, alone with a fuckin' stranger," he chuckles softly.

Craig laughs as they step out of the bar, the cool night air hitting his bare skin. The quiet night contrasted greatly with the loud boisterous bar, and the sudden silence enveloping them made them feel more alone, and made their walk that little bit more intimate. “There could be worse strangers to be stuck alone with,” Craig says honestly with a soft, genuine smile.

Tyler smiles at him, looking over and suddenly realizing how small Craig seemed compared to him. "It's a good thing you're cute then," he mumbles, throwing an arm over Craig's shoulders.

Craig leans into his touch, smiling widely to himself as he slips his own arm around Tyler’s waist, pulling him even closer still. “Where are we going?” he asks, not really caring where their destination was but still curious nonetheless.

Tyler shrugs. "We could go to my place and play some games, assuming you're into them," he mumbles, deep in thought as he strokes Craig's hair.

The feeling of Tyler running his fingers through his hair was nice, and he enjoyed it maybe a little too much, but in spite of that, he couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about going back to his place this soon after meeting him for the first time. “Uh... if you want to,” he responds, unsure as to how to tell him that he was a little uncomfortable with that.

Tyler pauses, suddenly thinking of something that Craig clearly wouldn't like at home. "Ah, maybe not. Uh… we could find a park or something, pretty much everywhere is closed," he mumbles, looking around. "Walmart is open, we could fuck around," he looks down the street. "My truck's down the street, I could just take you home," he offers, glancing down at him.

Right off the bat, Craig decides that he doesn’t want to go home just yet. They had _just_  met and he wasn’t ready to part ways, not this early in the night. “The park sounds nice,” he says with a curt nod. “If that’s okay with you…?”

Tyler chuckles as they reach his truck, unlocking it and mumbling. "Hah, the park at one in the morning. Maybe I was wrong, what if you're the murderer?" He sends a playful glance towards Craig as he gets in the car, starting it up.

Shutting the car door behind him and buckling himself in, Craig laughs. “If I was, I’d be a terrible one. I left all my knives at home,” he jokes back, grinning up at him as he settles into the passenger seat.

Tyler glances over, "Oh, cause you could totally take me," he rolls his eyes as he starts driving down the road towards a park. "I mean, I'd definitely overpower you," he winks at him, almost immediately laughing after at how stupid that sounded to him.

Craig laughs along with him, blushing a little at the implication and biting back a comment on how he would let him, deciding that it might be a little too early in their relationship (if they could even call it that) for sexual tension. “That wouldn’t be hard, I have weak noodle arms,” Craig replies, wiggling his arms a little to demonstrate his point. “Yours are a lot stronger than mine,” he adds, shamelessly ogling his build.

Tyler glances over at him for a moment, instead chuckling softly to himself at what Craig had said. "Might have to try it sometime then," he taunts, at this point wondering how far Craig would let him go with this as he got closer to their destination. _Spending an absurdly long time with someone alone with all these sexual comments in the air would be a challenge, much less anyone this cute. You really fucked it this time, buddy._  Tyler sighs inwardly as he pulls onto the street.

Cheeks heating up again, Craig chuckled nervously. “You not gonna buy me dinner first?” he half jokes, secretly hoping that the night would end with an invitation to do just that, assuming he didn’t say something as they walked around the park that would screw his chance of getting a date.

Tyler doesn't even look away from what he's doing, "Can't right now, unless you consider Walmart fine dining, sugar," he mumbles as he finds a parking spot and shuts the car off once he's parked it.

“I’d like to think I’m a little more refined than that,” Craig laughs, unbuckling his seatbelt as the truck came to a halt. He hops out and shut the door behind him, and slides his hands into his jean pockets to protect them from the cold as he waits for Tyler to lock up.

Tyler gets out after him, unbuckling his seatbelt and shutting the door, locking the car before turning and walking over to Craig. "What's your favorite colour?" Tyler suddenly asks, turning to look at Craig as they walked.

“Ah… orange,” he replies after a moment of thought, amused that he’d ask him something so simple. “Yours?”

Tyler looks back at the ground in front of them. "Blue. Favorite game?" he asks, casting a glance his way every so often.

“GTA online, when it isn’t randomly disconnecting me. Yours?” he asks, and then quickly adds “Assuming you play games too, that is.”

Tyler flashes a smile, as though he knows something Craig doesn't. "Hearthstone," he replies. "But Evan loves GTA, so we play it a lot," he doesn't seem to mind the fact, though.

“Evan… is that the friend you were talking to at the bar?” he asks curiously, earlier worries that they were talking about him coming back, but he did his best to swallow them down.

Tyler looks over at him. "Yeah, that's the guy," he pauses, eyes narrowing in consideration as everything he'd said came back. He bites his lip, stopping in his tracks to more deeply consider what dating Craig would entail.

Craig stops when he does, eyeing him with concern. “Is everything okay?” he asks with a small frown.

Tyler stares at him for a few seconds, "Yeah, fine. Everything's fine," he replies, hesitantly continuing his walk. Evan's words had their pull, sure, but the last thing he wanted was to rush something when he barely knew the guy. He was so tempted to wait, but at the same time it was so hard to.

“Are you sure?” Craig presses further, brow furrowed in worry, and steps closer to him, quietly wondering if he’d be crossing a boundary if he held his hand.

Tyler bites back all the words tumbling around in his mind, instead cupping Craig's face. "Not really. But I'll figure it out," he replies, secretly wishing he could say so much more but settling on, "As long as you stick around."

Craig lightly grips his wrists and takes another step into his personal space, heart beating hard in his chest. “Yeah,” he agrees, gently nodding his head. “I’d like to stick around long enough to get to know you better at least, and who knows what’ll happen after that…”

Tyler doesn't move, his thumb gently brushing Craig's cheek but otherwise he makes no move to keep Craig away and merely hums at his words. "I have a few ideas," he mumbles, more so to himself.

“What kind of ideas?” Craig mumbles curiously in response, and takes Tyler’s hands in his and pulls them away from his face, intertwining their fingers together.

Tyler flashes a grin at him. "Spoils the surprise," he teases, squeezing Craig's hand. "Sounds like you'll have to stick around to find out," Tyler chuckles to himself, pulling Craig closer to him and pressing the man's hands against his chest, cursing the cold under his breath.

“I guess I will,” Craig smiles, blushing a little as he feels Tyler’s toned chest beneath his shirt. He looks up at him and for a split second, he thinks about kissing him but thinks better of it, and instead changes the subject. “Should we keep walking?”

Tyler hums as he considers this. "The other option being that we sit in the car and _not_  freeze, but risk looking creepy as shit?" He raises an eyebrow, debating internally at how much he liked being warm over how much he liked being this close to Craig.

“Are you saying we _both_  look like the creepy murderers?” he jokes, smirking up at him.

He narrows his eyes, considering this. "I'm saying two grown men at a park around two in the morning in December is creepy on its own," Tyler points out, biting his lip to keep from doing something he'd regret.

“Is it two am?” Craig asks surprised, seemingly not realising how late it was. “I should probably get back home then. I actually have to get up early tomorrow, so I can’t afford to stay up too late…” he admits, a little reluctant to cut their… date? short.

Tyler just smiles and nods, releasing his hold on Craig and heading back to his car. He takes the time to more thoroughly consider what Evan had told him, silently cursing the man for how simultaneously smart and stupid he could be in two minutes. Once they got close enough, he unlocked the car and got in.

Craig hops in beside him and buckles himself up once again, and gives Tyler the most accurate directions to his apartment building that he could, all while rubbing his cold arms to heat them up as the air conditioning blew warm air into the truck.

Tyler drives him there in silence, more than a few times casting a thoughtful glance his way but instead of saying anything he just stares at the road. When he does speak, they're nearly there. "I'm gonna see you again, right?" he asks, glancing over and looking the tiniest bit worried.

Craig beams at him. “Yeah! I mean, yeah, if you want,” he says, reaching to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Give me your phone, I’ll put my number in it.” Tyler reaches into his pocket, digging his phone out and offering in Craig's direction, not wanting to risk taking his eyes off the road for too long. Craig takes his phone from him and quickly inputs his number and half considers putting a little heart emoji besides his name before deciding against it, realising that that might be a little presumptuous. “Here,” he says as he hands it back. “Just call me or text me or something later. Maybe we can have that dinner sometime,” he smirks a little with a slight blush.

Tyler smiles at him as he tosses his phone into the cup holder, stopping outside of Craig's apartment. He leans over, letting his lips ghost over Craig's neck. "Next time," is all he says as he shifts back into his own seat, watching Craig carefully.

Craig swallows hard, and nods, blush creeping up his neck as he hops out of the truck. “Next time,” he promises, waving to him as he made his way to the door to the building, sending one last longing look behind him before unlocking the door and disappearing inside.

Tyler just rubs his face and sighs. "I'm totally fucking screwed," he mutters aloud to himself, before backing up and heading home.

* * *

 

Tyler wasn't really sure what about Craig kept drawing him in, made him addicted and wanting more, but whatever caused it had brought him here, parked outside Craig's apartment building waiting for him.

Meanwhile, Craig fixed his hair and the collar of his shirt in the mirror, taking a deep breath to calm his jittery nerves before leaving his apartment, locking the door behind him. He pocketed his keys and double checked that he had his wallet and his phone, before making his way towards Tyler’s truck, smiling at him nervously as he hopped into the passenger seat. “Hey.”

Tyler glances over and immediately his face warms into a smile. "You look amazing," he replies, turning his attention back to the car as he backed out of the driveway and onto the road.

“Thanks,” Craig replies, chuckling timidly. “It’s just… clothes,” he says, cringing at his awkwardness. His palms were sweaty and his heart was beating a little too fast, and he felt so nervous about this entire date. He desperately wanted it to go well and was so worried that it wouldn’t, and he was already fucking it up.

Looking over, Tyler gently rubs his hand. "Yeah, well you look nice," he presses, eyes on the road as he drove to the restaurant he picked.

“You too,” Craig says, and takes in Tyler’s appearance, and not for the first time, wonders why on earth someone as attractive as him would even look twice at him, never mind asking him out.

Tyler just hums, offering a small smile. His light brown hair looks perfectly golden in the light, short t-shirt perfectly showing off his muscular arms. He has a black jacket draped over the back of the seat he's in and the dark pants he's wearing highlight the absurd length of his legs.

The silence that descends upon them doesn’t help Craig’s frayed nerves in the slightest, and he plays with his fingers in his lap as he stares out the window at the passing scenery. “So uh… where are we going?” he asks, more out of want to break the quiet and make small talk than out of curiosity.

Tyler glances over at him, eyes flashing over him to once again take in his appearance before responding. "Uh, Applebee's," he shrugs, glancing at the restaurants as they pass by and pulling into the one he'd mentioned. "This, yeah," he shrugs as he unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out, locking the car once Craig gets out.

Rubbing his arm, Craig walks around the truck to meet Tyler on the other side, smiling up at him and waves for him to lead them inside. Tyler drapes an arm around Craig, gently squeezing his shoulder and walks them through the door. The restaurant was packed and filled with couples and families alike, and the room was bustling with noise. They get seated after a few minutes and the waitress leaves them to go over the menu, Tyler skimming it for a moment before looking up at Craig.

Craig meets his eyes and shoots him another shy smile as he skims his own menu, even though he already knows what he wants. “So uh… what do you do for a living?” he says, asking the first question that comes to mind.

Tyler glances up, seeming to shift at this question. "Uh… me and my friends play video games," he replies almost shyly, setting his menu down.

Craig’s eyes widen in disbelief. “Really?” he asks surprised, an excited grin tugging at his lips. “Me too!”

Tyler chuckles at that, seeming almost relieved. "Oh, thank god," he sighs, rubbing his face. "What kind of video games?" he asks, eyes skimming Craig again.

“GTA and GMOD mostly, but I’ve been playing a lot of Dead Realm recently, and occasionally some other games. Whatever strikes my fancy really,” Craig shrugs, some of his earlier nerves fading away now that he knows that he doesn’t have to explain what his job is, like he’s had to do with everyone else he’s ever dated before him. “You?”

Tyler shrugs half heartedly. "GTA, GMOD, we always play the latest Black Ops but they're never any good," he mumbled, trailing off. "Whatever Vanoss wants, usually," he mutters, trying to think of their usual games.

That name sounded familiar, but Craig couldn’t remember where he heard it and shrugged it off, assuming that he must have stumbled across one of his videos before. Before he could say anything else, the waitress came by to take their orders, and Craig told her what he wanted as he handed back the menu, and then she turned to Tyler with a plastic smile.

Tyler shrugs her smile off with his order, turning his attention immediately back to Craig once he gives up his menu. He prompts Craig to continue what he was going to say with "You were saying?"

“Oh! Uh…” he stutters, trying to remember what it was he was going to say before he was interrupted. “You mentioned Vanoss? I think I’ve heard that name before…” he trails off, raking his brain for where exactly he remembers hearing that username.

Tyler remains unfazed. "I would hope so, he's got like ten million subscribers or something," he mutters, looking off into the distance as he tried to come up with a number.

“Ten million?!” Craig repeats, jaw falling slightly in shock. “Fuck, and here I thought my two million was impressive…” he adds, a little dejected, but doesn’t let it bother him too much. He’ll get there someday too. “Yeah, that’s probably why I’m familiar then. I thought maybe one of my friends knew him, but maybe not,” he shrugs.

Tyler hums. "He's kinda famous, I guess. Not that he likes it, but," he looks away, shaking his head. "Doesn't matter. He makes us play that damned game, uh… Dead something. He like, helped make it," he shrugs.

“Dead Realm?” he asks, and then it clicks. “Oh! Now I remember what I know him from! Yeah, I worked on that game too! My friend Adam dragged me into it. I forgot that that’s what his channel name was, I just called him Evan in the skype call,” he shrugs. “Small world, eh?”

Tyler nods, remembering to ask Evan about this later. "Yeah," he replies, "Crazy, he never mentioned it," Tyler remarks with a frown.

Craig laughs nervously. “Yeah, well, I’m not that important so I wouldn’t have really expected him to. I’m easily the least important person that worked on that game, so yeah…”

Tyler rolls his eyes. "No way. Didn't Brian work on that dumb thing?" he asks, faintly remembering him from Brock's mentioning of him once or twice.

“Brian? That ridiculously attractive guy with the stereotypically sexy Irish accent? Yeah, nobody at all is paying any attention to him,” he snarks, rolling his eyes and hating himself for sounding so bitter. “And the game isn’t dumb,” he adds with a note of irritation.

Tyler raises an eyebrow. "Tell us how you really feel about Brian," he remarks. "And clearly, you've never played everything in your life with Evan fucking Fong," is all Tyler says before the waitress reappears with their drinks and he falls silent.

“No, I haven’t… Why?” he asks confused, and still a tad insulted that Tyler would insult the game he had worked so hard on and had grown to be very proud of.

Tyler pauses, shifting in his seat. "The game itself isn't stupid. Playing it with Evan is. He's only nice in real life," he explains. "The game is good, nice and scary just the way you evil fuckers planned it," he notes sourly, clearly having been scared by it more times than he'll care to admit.

Craig nods, feeling a little relieved, and gives him a small smile. “I’m glad,” he says sincerely, and watches him for a moment. “Maybe if this goes well, we could play some time. Y’know, assuming you don’t get _too_  scared from the jumpscares,” he teases with a slight smirk.

Tyler shoots him a glare for that. "Oh yeah, cause you're the quietest thing ever, you definitely don't shriek like a little girl ever," he sarcastically mutters.

Craig’s cheeks heat up in embarrassment, and he curls in on himself a little bit. “Sometimes I get loud when I’m recording, okay?” he admits, Adam’s incessant giggling at his past shrieking ringing through his mind. Tyler chuckles softly, watching him with a fond smile.

The waitress comes back with their meals and sets their respective plates down in front of them, and pointedly sends another smile in Tyler’s direction, before stalking off towards another table. Craig watches her go for a moment with a frown, slightly annoyed that she’d been paying so much attention to _his_  date, but she didn’t openly flirt with him so he shook it off as him reading too much into nothing, and quietly dug into his food.

Tyler frowns after her, spending more time than he should've debating the likelihood of her leaving her phone number on his receipt before starting on his food, mumbling nothing more than "She's weird," to himself.

“Yeah,” Craig quietly agrees, staring down into his plate with a sigh, memories of a date gone wrong flooding back to him. “I once went on a date with a guy who ditched me for the waiter who he was flirting with the entire time,” he comments idly with a harsh frown. “I never heard from him again.”

Tyler looks up at him at these words,"Yeah?" He hums at first, as though nonchalant. "I didn't drag your ass here just for the hell of it, you know that," he replies calmly. "I did it cause I like you," Tyler shrugs it off as he continues eating.

Craig’s heart flutters a little at that and he smiles to himself as he eats. “Yeah? Well, I like you too,” he says shyly, looking up at him for a moment before diverting his attention back to his plate, butterflies in his stomach. Tyler glances back up with a smile but says nothing, finishing his meal in silence.

The silence is oddly comfortable even though they hadn’t known each for that long, but Craig didn’t complain. It was nice to feel so at peace with him that he didn’t need to fill the air with conversation as they ate, and instead would send him fond glances as he finished his own meal.

Once he was done, he dropped his cutlery onto his place and took a sip of his drink. “Are we going to split a dessert?” he asks jokingly, eyeing the couple at the next table over who were feeding each other cake and being a little too affectionate with disdain.

Tyler shoots him a glare. "Okay, I don't know exactly how cheesy I look, but we are definitely not fucking doing that," he says sternly, taking the check when the waitress came back around and refusing to let Craig pay.

Craig giggles at that as he pulls out his wallet. “How much do I owe you?” he asks, blatantly ignoring the way Tyler was practically shielding the bill from him.

Tyler shakes his head casually, offering the bill back to her so she could scan his card. "Nothing, put your money away," he replies sternly.

A twinge of guilt pangs in his chest, and he frowns. “I can’t let you pay for all of this,” he says, opening his wallet and staring at the cash inside, trying to calculate the price of his half of the meal in his head.

Tyler leans forward. "You let me drag you halfway across town and tolerated my presence for more than twenty minutes which is more than I can say for half my friends. I'm paying," he replies.

“Okay,” he gives in, and reluctantly puts his wallet away. “And I liked spending time with you…” he adds softly, as if he was worried about how he’d react to that.

Tyler smiles at him when the waitress returns and offers him the receipt which he doesn't look twice at before tossing a tip on the table and leaving, replying with "I know you do," as he unlocked the car and got in.

Craig chuckles nervously as he hopped in beside him. “Am I that obvious about it?” he asks, biting his lip a little as he looked him up and down, and in that moment, realised that he wasn’t being particularly subtle with his attraction to him.

Tyler simply shrugs. "Just figured. Kinda," he says as he goes to start the car, then pauses and glances at Craig for a second as though he'd just thought of something.

Craig looks at him confused, and wonders why he isn’t starting his truck. “Tyler?” he asks, squirming nervously, feeling a little uncomfortable because of his staring. Tyler blinks suddenly, turning back to the car and starting it, driving back to Craig's apartment building. “Is everything okay?” Craig asks, still worried about him, even more so now when he hadn’t said anything.

Tyler nods. "Yeah, just thinking," he replies calmly.

“What are you thinking about?” Craig asks a little flirtatiously, hoping he isn’t overstepping a boundary by asking something like that.

Tyler doesn't even miss a beat when he replies "You," and looks at the houses around them.

“Me?” Craig asks a little surprised, his stomach flipping. Tyler hums as though confirming that, but says nothing more on the subject. “What is it about me that you’re thinking about it?” Craig asks, testing his luck and pressing him a little further.

Tyler looks over at him, parking the car and shutting it off as he'd arrived at Craig's house. He leans over and presses a gentle kiss against Craig's neck, mumbling "That," against his skin.

Craig squeaks, and squirms in his seat a little, obviously not expecting that at all. “My mouth is up here,” he challenges him, licking his lips at the mere thought as he waited to see if he’d take the bait.

Tyler glances up at him, as though amused. He sits up, however, and brings one hand to the side of Craig's face and ever so slowly leans in until their lips are almost brushing. "Next time," he repeats with a smile, eyes almost mischievous.

Craig pouts and looks up at him annoyed. “You know, I’d still go on a second date with you if you kissed me right now,” he states, and glances down at his lips again.

Tyler just smiles. "This is more fun," he points out, his thumb barely brushing Craig's lips.

Craig sighs, and lightly grabs his wrist, pulling it away from his face. “You wouldn’t think that if you actually kissed me,” he mumbles, quietly resolving to make him eat his words one day. “So is this goodnight, then?”

Tyler glances at him once more. "For now,"  he replies, sitting back in his seat.

Craig nods and unbuckles his seatbelt and hops out of his truck, but just before he shuts the door, he asks “Text me?”

Tyler flashes him a smile. "Sure," he nods, stopping to watch Craig head inside before driving off. Instead of heading home, however, he found himself at Evan's house letting himself in as he knew where the keys were 'hidden'.

Hearing the front door open and shut, Evan sighs and pauses the game he was playing, excusing himself from the Skype call and removing his headphones. “Tyler?” he calls out as he leaves his home office, knowing that it _must_  be him, as everyone else would have had the manners to knock first.

The resounding "Yo!" from his living room proves his theory correct, as Tyler is waiting for him when he enters. "How are the guys?" he asks, undoubtedly knowing Evan was busy recording.

“They’re alright. Probably pissed that you dragged me out of a zombies game,” he comments, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms. “What’s with the random visit?”

Tyler laughs. "Tell them it's a fuckin' pizza," he remarks, the question recalling his reason as he jumped up and crossed the room. "You remember the people you worked with on that Dead Realm game?" he asks, stopping a few feet away.

Evan raises an eyebrow. “Yeah? What about them?” he asks curiously.

Tyler just stares him down for a moment. "Was there, by chance, some dude named _Craig_?" He asks, eyes narrowing at him.

Evan takes a moment to think about, before nodding slowly. “Well, there was this kid that called himself ‘Mini’. His name might’ve Craig, but I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

Tyler bites his lip, taking a step back. "I just got back from his _house_ , that's why," he replies, clearly torn.

“Wait, what?” Evan asks, clearly confused for a moment before it clicks. “Oh wait! Is he the same Craig from the bar? The one you asked out for the bet and then threatened me to never talk to?”

Tyler glares harshly at him. "I don't like where this is going, but… that one," he admits.

“And you were at his house..?” Evan asks curiously, and then smirks at him, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “Jesus Tyler, you work fast. You only met the guy last week! And on the first date too? Wow,” he laughs.

Tyler shoves him lightly,"You dumbass, no! I took him out, dropped him off. Came here," he explains. "Get your mind out of the gutter.”

Evan laughs again, and steps away from the door frame and trails off into the kitchen. “So how’d it go then?” he asks, pulling two cans of beer out of his fridge and offering one to Tyler.

Tyler takes the beer and sighs, rubbing his face. "I'm so fucked, dude," he groans, looking genuinely scared. "He's amazing," he takes a sip of his beer, staying close to Evan.

Evan nods, cracking open his own can and taking a gulp. “Amazing enough for a second date?”

Tyler pauses. "Yeah," he says hesitantly, as though there's something he isn't saying.

Evan examines his face for a moment, and then sighs. “I know that look. What’s going on, man?” he frowns.

Tyler almost doesn't tell him, but eventually takes another sip of his beer and confesses "I almost kissed him," and tries to avoid wincing as he does so.

“Almost?” Evan repeats, brows raised. “What stopped you?”

Tyler stops, as though he hadn't thought of that. "He wanted me to," is all he says in reply, looking up at Evan and seeming confused himself by the answer.

“And you still didn’t?” he asks, waving for Tyler to follow him to the couch and plops down onto it. “Do you not… want to?”

Tyler sits beside him, fingers rapping against the edge of his bottle. "I… I don't know. It felt kinda wrong, like I should wait," he shrugs simply. "So I did," is all he says, looking over at Evan.

Evan nods, and then takes a moment to look him over, and almost laughs. “Dude you’re so into this guy, it’s cute,” he grins widely at him. “I’ve never seen you like this, it’s kinda funny.”

Tyler grumbles a quiet "Fuck you," as he sips his beer. "At least I have him, the closest you've gotten to dating in two months is me," he retorts.

“I must’ve been desperate if I almost dated you,” Evan teases back, to cover up how much those words stung, and takes a large gulp of his drink as someone he’d very much like to date appears in his mind. “But seriously man, I’m glad you’ve found someone. It’s nice to see you happy,” he adds sincerely, and clinks their cans together with a genuine smile.

Tyler grins at him. "Am I allowed to stay while you play zombies? Cause I'm gonna anyway," he replies, fishing his phone out and texting Craig.

Evan gets up, seemingly forgetting that he was in a game until then and nods. “Of course. I’m not going to let you drive home when you’ve been drinking anyway,” he says and claps him on the shoulder as he walks passed him on the way back to his office.

Tyler just rolls his eyes. "Excuses excuses, you like having me around!" he taunts, making himself comfortable on Evan's couch.

“Yeah, there’s nothing I love more than someone coming into my home and eating my food and drinking my beer,” Evan drawls sarcastically and rolls his eyes, fond smile on his face as he disappears into the next room.

Tyler mumbles "Haven't eaten all your food...yet," under his breath as Evan walks away. Part of him wonders what the other guys in the Skype call were doing, aside from getting pissed at Evan for leaving. He brushes it off, sure he's bound to hear Evan screaming like a girl while he scrolls on Twitter.

* * *

 

The next morning, Evan wakes up from a long deserved rest after a night full of recording and gossiping about Tyler’s love life, and stretches out his limbs after pulling himself out of bed. He massages the crick in the back of his neck as he trudges out of his bedroom, noting in passing how the bathroom light was left on, but thinks nothing of it, knowing that Tyler must have forgot to switch it off. He doesn’t notice that anything in his house is different until he’s got a cup of coffee in his hands, and is staring into his surprisingly bare living room, wondering where on earth all of his pillows and blankets have disappeared to.

He sighs. “For fuck’s sake Tyler…”

* * *

 

It had taken at least an hour for him to steal every single pillow and blanket he could find in Evan's house and pack it perfectly right in the back of his truck, and then another hour to raid his bathroom and kitchen for food and whatever else he figured he needed. Once everything was prepared, he swung by his house to feed Kino, and then texted Craig that he was on his way.

Craig’s phone buzzed just as he hopped out of the shower, and he cursed to himself when he saw what it said, and quickly scrambled to get dressed so that he was ready when Tyler showed up. He was told to dress comfortably, but he still wanted to look nice and threw a shirt on anyways, even if the stiff collar did cut into his neck a little, and a nice pair of jeans. He spent way too long in front of the mirror obsessively fixing his hair, and trying to figure out whether he looked better with his top button done or not.

Tyler knocks on the door a few minutes later, leaning against the doorframe and waiting for Craig, who jumps a little at the sudden knock on the door. Craig takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, before leaving the bathroom to answer the door. He does some last minute fixing of his hair on the way, and adjusts his shirt one last time before opening the door, smile in place. “Hey!”

Tyler immediately grins at him, taking a step back. "Hey," he replies with a smile, swinging his keys in his hand. "Ready to head out?" he asks, seeming rather excited.

“Yeah, just hold on a second,” he says and disappears back inside to grab his keys, his wallet, and his phone, checking his reflection one last time before meeting Tyler back outside. He closes his front door and locks it behind him, before turning to Tyler. “I’m ready,” he beams at him.

Tyler returns the smile, reaching for Craig's hand and heading down to his car. He gets in it, strongly advising Craig to not look in the trunk of the car. Craig almost looks behind him the second he hears that warning, but manages to stop himself just in time. “Why? Do you have bodies back there?” he jokes, insanely curious as to what he _did_  have back there, but guessed that Tyler wouldn’t tell him if he asked.

Tyler rolls his eyes at that, chuckling. "Yeah, totally," he replies as he gets in the car and starts it, heading to their destination once Craig was ready to go.

Craig hops into the passenger seat, which he was growing well accustomed to over this past week, and settles in, watching the passing scenery as Tyler drove him to their surprise date. His brow furrows in confusion once he realises that they were heading out of the city. “Where are we going?” he asks, curious.

Tyler shakes his head slowly. "Nah, ah ah. Surprise," he scolds, looking over at Craig and gently grabbing his chin, shaking it. He turns back to the road, eventually pulling off onto a dirt road and parking in an empty field just as the sun starts to set.

Craig blushes a little when he grabs his face, but lets the subject drop as they continue along the road. His curiosity continues to pique when they turn into a seemingly random field, and his confusion begins to grow. What on earth where they doing here? “I was joking about the bodies before, but now I’m starting to worry,” he comments, looking around at their surroundings.

Tyler shakes him off, shutting the truck off and getting out, walking to the trunk and stopping beside it, waiting for Craig to join him. Craig hesitantly hops out of the truck when he does and follows him around to the back of the truck, still confused as to what’s going on. Tyler grabs Craig's hips, lifting him up and setting him on the fluffy pile of blankets and getting in beside him as the night falls.

Craig squeaks in surprise when he’s suddenly picked up without warning, and even more surprised when he’s placed onto something soft. He lightly grips at the soft blankets underneath him, his heart swelling as he slowly starts to realise what’s going on, and he looks up at Tyler dumbfounded. Tyler leans back against his hands, watching Craig instead of the meteor shower he knows is coming.

“Tyler…” Craig mumbles, but a light shooting across the sky catches his eye, and he turns away just in time to see a hail of meteors plummeting from space. He watches them completely mesmerised, and still astounded that this is what Tyler took him to do tonight, and he unconsciously shifts closer to him. Tyler rubs his arm, pulling Craig against his shoulder, and presses a gentle kiss against Craig's head, smiling fondly at him.

“I can’t believe you did this for me…” Craig mumbles, leaning against his shoulder, eyes still locked on the falling meteors. Tyler turns to the meteor shower, eyes flickering between the sky and Craig. It takes a good fifteen minutes for the shower to end and as soon as it does, Tyler grabs his face and gently kisses him on the lips.

Craig melts into the kiss almost immediately, so overcome with emotion that it was difficult for him not to. He slips one hand around the back of Tyler’s neck and the other lightly grips his arm, and he shuffles closer, heart all but leaping out of his chest. Tyler's muscles shift when he pulls Craig into his lap, hands worming their way up his side, and Craig tilts his head, snaking both arms around his neck until their bodies were flush together.

Tyler's hands slip under his shirt, slowly tracing over Craig's skin and humming happily. Craig’s skin tingles as Tyler’s hand ghosts over it, but out of fear that they were moving a little too quickly, he lightly grabs Tyler’s hands and pulls them out from underneath his shirt and holds them, intertwining their fingers together.

Just as he does so, the rain starts pelting down in a sudden shower, and Craig pulls away for a moment in surprise, until he decides that he doesn’t actually care and dips in for another kiss. Tyler grips the front of his shirt, hand loosening and sliding up the side of Craig's neck. Craig hums against his lips, his soaked shirt now sticking to his skin because of the rain as he pulls away with a bright cheek splitting smile. He looks up at Tyler for a moment, before laughing a little. “You’re wet,” he comments, running a hand through his hair and chuckling at the way it sticks up at odd angles.

Tyler smiles at him, getting up and keeping a tight grip on Craig's waist so he didn't fall, carrying him back to the car and muttering under his breath how it wasn't every day he'd carry him like this and resist the urge to slam him against the nearest hard surface and fuck him. He leaves Craig by his door and walks around to the drivers side, thoroughly soaked.

Craig hops into the truck, glad to be out of the rain and inside where it was warm and dry. He was shivering a little and his clothes were dripping onto his seat. “Sorry I’m getting the inside of your truck wet…” he apologises.

Tyler shakes his head, letting it slide. "Just water," he replies, turning the heat on and turning to Craig as he turned the car on. "Might wanna take your shirt off," he advises, driving away before it got too muddy.

“I-I’m okay!” Craig stutters nervously, voice raising a few octaves as he wraps his arms around himself, partly because he was self conscious about being shirtless in front of him, partly because he was still a little cold.

Tyler rifles through the backseat for something, coming up with a red jacket and throwing it at Craig. "Put it on, I'm not having you get sick just so I could make out with you," he replies, pulling his own shirt off with one hand and pitching it into the backseat.

Craig swallows hard, his eyes trailing over Tyler’s bare chest for a moment before he forces himself to look away, cheeks heating up. He takes his time unbuttoning his shirt, but quickly removes it and replaces it with Tyler’s jacket, which was a size too big for him but he wasn’t going to complain. It was warm and dry and comfortable, and it smelled like his cologne, and he’d wear it all week if he could. “Thanks,” he mumbles, sinking into his seat a little bit.

Tyler hums at him, eyes flicking between the road and the rear view mirror until he pulled into Craig's apartment building and stopped. He leans over, kissing Craig's cheek and telling him to keep the jacket. “Don’t you want it back?” Craig asks, confused, bundling up his own soaking wet shirt in his hands.

Tyler shakes his head. "Nah. Don't worry about it," he shrugs. "It's what boyfriends do," is all he says simply.

That catches Craig completely off guard, and he swears his heart stops for a moment. He struggles to find the words to reply to him, but nods furiously, dumb smile on his face. “Yeah, yeah okay,” he grins as he climbs out of his truck and into the rain again. “I uh… I had a great time tonight,” he adds.

Tyler smiles at him. "I did too. Now get inside before you freeze again," he orders, watching him.

Craig nods as he shuts the truck door, and runs up to the front door of his apartment building and quickly lets himself in. He sends one last wave to Tyler before disappearing inside, and leaning against the door, biting his lip to stop himself from smiling so widely, a giddy feeling in his chest.

As though it had become a sort of ritual, Tyler drives to Evan's house with his hands eagerly drumming against the steering wheel. When he gets there, he opens the door and then heads back to the truck, grabbing all the stuff he could manage and dropping it in the middle of the living room and going back for the rest, yelling,"It's just me!" as he knew Evan was undoubtedly getting up. He walks over to the door and shuts it, taking off his shoes and walking over to meet Evan in his office.

Evan looks up from his computer when he hears Tyler calling for him, and once again excuses himself from the Skype call, choosing to ignore how their friends were screaming at him for ditching them two recording sessions in a row, and had just taken off his headphones and muted his mic when Tyler appeared at the doorway. He was just about to ask him what he was doing here, but then he caught sight of him. “Where the hell is your shirt? And why’s your hair wet?” he asks confused.

Tyler casually leans against the doorway. "Shirt's in the truck, and it's raining," he replies. He almost tells him about the blankets, but Evan is bound to figure out sooner or later.

“Why is your shirt in your truck?” Evan presses further, as Tyler raised more questions than he answered.

Tyler raises an eyebrow, as though that were obvious. "I just got back from Craig's, why do you think?" he replies.

Evan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Jesus Tyler, did you not even get fully dressed before you ditched him? I thought you were better than that…”

Tyler walks over and grabs the nearest paper, smacking Evan with it. "Stop thinking like that, you're lucky I didn't get jizz on your fucking blanket," he retorts sarcastically.

“...Please don’t tell me you took all of my blankets just so you could have sex on them,” he says, unsure as to whether or not Tyler was joking.

Tyler stares down at him, totally unaffected. "I mean, they're wet now anyway," he shrugs, turning to leave.

“What the fuck did you do?” Evan asks, hopping out of his desk chair to follow him, not quite finished with this conversation just yet.

Tyler turns around all too quickly, leaving a few inches between them as he sets both hands on Evan's shoulders. "Listen to me. If I had fucked my boyfriend tonight, it sure as hell wouldn't be in my goddamn car, or on the second date, and I probably wouldn't come here to tell you," he pauses then adds "Unless you really wanna know, then," and he shrugs off the rest of his sentence.

Evan stopped listening after the first sentence and grins at him. “‘Boyfriend’?” he repeats gleefully.

Tyler sighs, staring him down. "Did you even hear anything past boyfriend?" he demands, lightly shaking Evan's shoulders.

Evan shrugs. “You can’t just casually drop something like that on me and expect to pay attention to anything else you say,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “So he’s your boyfriend now?” he asks, still grinning.

Tyler stares at him for a few seconds before breaking into the same grin. "Yes, okay? We're dating and I love him so much and he tastes like strawberries," he blurts out, like an excited schoolgirl.

“‘Love’? Dude slow down,” Evan laughs, and claps him on the shoulder to congratulate him. “Next you’ll be coming to me asking to help you pick out an engagement ring and to write a best man’s speech for your wedding!”

Tyler narrows his eyes, faking offense. "Fine, if you're gonna be like that maybe I'll ask Nogla to do it!" he retorts.

“Do you _really_  want _Nogla_  of all people giving a speech?” Evan smirks.

He stares at Evan for another moment, admitting defeat. "Fuck, no," he mutters, leaning his head against Evan's shoulder. "What am I gonna do when he finds out?" he asks softly, voice tinged with worry.

Evan is confused for a second, before he realises they’re not talking about Nogla, and his expression softens. “I don’t know, dude. Part of me thinks you should just tell him because it’ll be better if he hears the truth from you, but I don’t know how he’ll take that…” he frowns.

Tyler's shoulders visibly slump. "There's no winning, Ev. One of us is bound to fuck up eventually, it's not like this is something we can keep from him forever," he shifts his head, resting his cheek on Evan's shoulder and staring up at him.

“Which is exactly why you might just have to tell him,” Evan sighs, patting him on the back consolingly. “Maybe not right away though. It might be better if you wait until you’re sure that he is confident that you genuinely care for him. Otherwise, he might think everything was just part of the bet…”

Tyler sighs, standing upright and tussling Evan's hair. He pulls Evan into a hug, resting his chin on Evan's head and sighing. "What would I do without you?" He mumbles softly.

“You’d be single probably,” Evan replies, hugging him back with a small smile. “And you’d have to buy your own food and beer too. You might even have to sleep on your own bed instead of my couch. It’d be terrible.”

Tyler laughs softly, smiling. "Then maybe I'll sleep in your bed," he counters, looking down at him with mischievous eyes. "Cause someone ditched all our friends in a recording again," Tyler hums. "You're in so much trouble."

Evan rolls his eyes and pulls away. “They’ll get over it. It was only GMOD or something, I’m sure they can manage without me for a few rounds,” he says and looks back at his office. “I should probably get back to them though…”

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Why, so you can gossip about me and Craig?" he taunts, playfully shoving Evan towards his office.

“Exactly. Our lives are boring, so we have to entertain ourselves with stories about yours,” he teases. “Plus it’ll help get Marcel off my back about dating you…” he mutters, obviously annoyed.

Tyler's eyebrows shoot up at that. "Wait, _what_?!" he follows Evan back to his office, more than interested about Marcel thinking they were a thing.

“Yeah, dumbass is convinced we’re in love or something,” he rolls his eyes and sits down at his desk, not at all surprised to see that he was kicked from the lobby. “Apparently because you keep coming over and staying the night, and because we keep spending time together just the two of us, then we HAVE to be dating. It’s stupid.”

Tyler stands beside his desk. "No, that's stupidly _amazing._  I've never heard a thing about that," he says, face lighting up with a sudden idea.

Evan stares at him for a moment, very concerned and a little scared. “What are you thinking…?” he asks hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer.

Tyler shakes his head. "Nothing, don't worry about it," he lies, despite the fact that they both know he'd lied he seemed to stick to that. He falls totally silent, pulling up a chair beside Evan's.

Evan watches him suspiciously and eyes him warily. “Doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” he asks with narrowed eyes.

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Don't you worry about it," he replies, turning pointedly to look at the screen and encouraging Evan to do the same.

Evan knew very well that Tyler was up to something, but he also knew he was too stubborn to leave him alone, so he hadn’t much of a choice but to put his headphones back on and unmute his mic. “Alright, I’m back,” he announces into the Skype call, and casts a glance at Tyler. “And Tyler’s here too,” he adds, hoping to ruin some of Tyler’s plan by removing the element of surprise.

Tyler just grins at him, yelling "Hi!" into the mic despite being unable to hear anyone's response. He stays still for a few minutes, keeping his eyes on Evan.

“Are you ever _not_  together?” Brian’s voice rings through his headset first, and Evan sighs, expecting a question like that.

“He came to brag about his date, Brian,” Evan explained, already sounding exasperated as if this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation.

Tyler flashes a grin. "Yeah, you look great Evan," he replies with a malicious grin, raising an  eyebrow at Evan. "Then again, I've been shirtless since I got here," he trails off.

“Wait, _what_?!” Brian asks, voice raising a few octaves in surprise.

“Yeah, what?” Nogla repeats suddenly interested in this conversation.

Evan shoots Tyler a hard glare. “Please put on a fucking shirt,” he practically begs him, shaking his head as he logged back into the game.

Tyler frowns, as though hurt. "You weren't complaining _earlier._  What happened?" he asks, and the huge grin suggests that this was his plan. "Is it the guys? Are you ashamed of us?" he leans closer, clearly entertained.

Evan shoves Tyler’s face away and he glares him down, as Marcel spoke up. “I FUCKING KNEW IT!” he exclaims loudly, as Brian laughs.

“It’s all coming out now, boys!”

“Evan? Did you invent this Craig person so that we wouldn’t find out that you two were in a relationship?” Nogla asks seriously, and Evan buries his face in his hands.

“No, I didn’t invent a fake boyfriend for Tyler,” he mutters into his palms, but then he realises that he could use this to fuck with Tyler back. “Do you really think I’d make up someone so boring and uninteresting? Give me some credit, man,” he smirks at Tyler, just so he knew that he was clearly joking.

Tyler scoffs. "I will have you _know_ , my boyfriend is a YouTuber," he counters, then just for extra measure leans over and licks Evan's neck, mumbling "You fucking ass," under his breath.

Evan pushes the mic away from his face for a moment so that their friends couldn’t hear what he was about to say. “They can’t see us, dumbass. You just licked me for no reason,” he points out, wiping at his neck with his sleeve before pulling the mic back down again.

“...I’m confused. Are you dating or not?” Brock pipes up, and Evan sighs again, especially annoyed that _Brock_  of all people had overheard Tyler’s dumb prank.

“We’re not dating. Tyler’s just being a dick.”

Tyler places one hand over his chest. "Ouch, Evan. If you wanted to break up you should've told me earlier, makes that whole licking thing awkward. Which was a _gift_  for you by the way," he shoots a playful glare, shaking his head to indicate that no, it was just specifically to fuck with him.

The Skype call was silent for a second, before Brian speaks up. “They must be fucking with us. No way would Tyler ever lick him, even as a joke.”

“Well, you never know,” Nogla replied, but this only seemed to confused Brian more.

“What do you mean? Did he try to lick you or something?”

“No! I’m just saying you can’t be so sure of these things.”

“Can we just stop with all this nonsense and get back to the game?” Evan asks, clearly done with this entire conversation. “I’m not dating Tyler, he’s dating that British kid I was telling you about yesterday, and anything else you lot seem to think is _wrong_.”

Tyler nods, getting up. "Yeah, uh, about that _British kid_ ," he mutters, shifting on his feet and seeming serious. "I, uh...gave him your jacket," he pats Evan on the shoulder and walks to the door.

“Tyler!” Evan exclaims, ignoring the laughing through his headphones. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

He shrugs helplessly. "You left it there for three weeks, what was I _supposed_  to do?!" he leans against the doorframe, cocky smirk indicating that he thought he'd won.

“I don’t know, maybe _give it back_?” Evan sighs. “Does Craig plan on giving it back at least?”

Tyler rolls his eyes,"I'm a _good_  boyfriend. I told him to keep it," he grins. "And seeing as you're not allowed anywhere near him, I'm guessing it's gone," he shrugs.

“...Does he know it’s my jacket?” Evan asks, muting his mic for the remainder of the conversation as he knew Tyler wouldn’t appreciate their friends overhearing what he was about to say. “Because if he thinks that’s yours, then that’s another lie to the pile of lies you’ve told him…”

Tyler folds his arms across his chest, glaring at Evan in silence. "I'm going home," is all he says, turning and pointedly slamming the door, likely more frustrated with his own stupidity than with Evan. Evan sighs but lets him go, and turns back to the game, apologising to his friends for muting himself a second time and finally starts playing again.

True to his word, he can hear Tyler's truck leaving his driveway before he drives away and it can only be assumed that whatever he's got on his mind isn't good.

* * *

 

Several dates later, Tyler had gotten more comfortable giving Craig kisses more often, not that either of them disliked this. "Next time," Tyler calls like he always does, lightly kissing Craig's cheek and watching him leave before pulling out of the driveway, already knowing his destination by heart.

Craig waves him goodbye before heading inside, shutting the door behind him. As much as he’d like to take a few moments to relax, he checks the time and realises that he’s late for a meeting and darts into his office and quickly boots up his computer, and joins the skype call that had already started without him. He catches the tail end of a story Tom was telling them, but before he could say anything, or Tom could finish his sentence, Adam speaks up.

“Well look who decided to show up twenty minutes late!” Adam teases lightly, and even though Craig couldn’t see his face, he knew exactly what sort of smarmy expression he must have been wearing.

“Blame Tyler,” was all Craig had to say about that, cheeks heating up at the memory of what took them so long to get home, but he wasn’t about to tell them anything about that. He wasn’t the sort to make out and tell.

“Oh were you two on a date?” Evan asks, and Craig hums in confirmation. “Great, that means he’s going to break into my house again,” Evan groans. “He’s my best friend and I love him and all, but it’d be nice if he gave me _some_  warning before he waltzes in like he lives here…” he sighs. “One of these days I half expect to walk downstairs and see his dog in my living room and his suitcases at the door…”

“Sorry?” Craig apologises, realising that this annoyance of his was likely his fault, but Evan didn’t seem to mind.

“Don’t worry about it. As long as he’s breaking and entering because he’s happy and wants to tell me about it, I’m okay with it. Just don’t do anything to break his heart, or otherwise we’re going to have words.”

Craig couldn’t tell if he was being threatened or not, but then one of the Dead Realm developers changed the topic back to the game, and the subject was dropped.

He had no reason to worry about Tyler or even suspect that anything was wrong. Even when he heard the distant sound of sirens, it never occurred to him that it could be Tyler involved in whatever car accident had occurred, and he waved it off, figuring if it was something bad then he’d hear about it in the news later.

It wasn’t until Evan had to excuse himself to take an important phone call that he began to grow suspicious. Wouldn’t Tyler have shown up at Evan’s by now? Why didn’t he hear him shuffling around in the background? He reasoned that maybe he went straight home for a change, but either way he would have texted him by now, and his phone was eerily silent.

“Shit, sorry about this, but I need to get out of here early,” Evan apologised to them, a sense of urgency in his voice. “Tyler’s in the hospital. Apparently he was in a car crash or something. I need to go check on him. Can we finish this another day?”

Craig’s heart dropped. He could hear Tom and Adam discuss another possible time for a meeting, and Evan bidding them goodbye, but none of the words registered. Tyler was in hospital. Tyler, _his Tyler_ , was in hospital. His heartbeat began to quicken as he began to panic, and he interrupted Tom mid sentence with a quick “I have to go!” and immediately hung up.

Even though Evan never mentioned anything to him about coming, or even which hospital Tyler was at, Craig was determined to hunt him down and find him. He quickly called an Uber and pocketed his wallet, his keys, and anything else that seemed useful at the time, and headed outside.

It took nearly forty-five minutes and two hospitals for them to find him, and he breathed a sigh of relief once he found a nurse who could point him in his direction. His heart was beating fast with worry as he made his way towards the room he was admitted to, terrified about what condition he was going to find him in.

Once he was outside the door, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and just as he gripped the door handle, he could hear Evan’s voice inside, and he froze.

“You really haven’t told Craig the truth yet?”

Tyler's voice is soft and weak, but stern "He can _never_  know about that. He'd get the wrong idea."

_The wrong idea about what?_  Craig frowns, and even though he knows that he shouldn’t eavesdrop in on their conversation, it sounded an awful lot like Tyler was lying to him and his curiosity was getting the better of him.

“He’s going to find out eventually. These things have a way of getting out,” Evan points out, a frown clear in his voice.

The creak from the bed indicates that Tyler sat up at that, a hiss of pain revealing his immediate regret at the action. "Cause that conversation would go so well, Evan, I can hear it now. 'I'm a piece of shit and I took a bet from my friend to talk to you'! No, I don't sound like an asshole at all!" he snaps sarcastically. After a short pause, he mumbles "I still hate you for that, ya know."

Tears begin to prickle at his eyes, and Craig could feel his entire world crumbling around him. Tyler only talked to him _because of a bet_? Tyler only asked him out because he was fucking _dared to_? Because Evan coerced him into it? His heart was shattering and he was trying his hardest not to cry, and his head knocked against the door as he tried to lean his forehead against it.

“Come in?” Evan called out to him, mistaking the accidental bang for a knock on the door, and Craig made the split second decision to throw the door open and step in, hands curled into fists in anger and stared Tyler down.

Tyler sits up, restricted by the needle in his arm. "Hey," he softly greets him. "I was wondering when you'd..." he stops, looking at Evan. "No, shit," he shakes his head, ripping the needle out of his arm and walking over to Craig. He barely manages to not stumble too much, arm starting to hurt from the huge gash in it.

“Tyler!” Evan hisses, eyeing the machine he was no longer connected to with concern, but made no move to force him back into bed, not wanting to interfere with this conversation at all.

“You only talked to me because of a bet?” Craig asks, looking up at him sad and broken. “You only asked me out because of some _dumb fucking bet_?! Was all that bullshit you spouted about me being cute and adorable when we first met just a fucking _lie_  to get me to agree to go out with you, just so you could win a _fucking bet_?!” he asks furiously, taking a few steps away from him.

Tyler flinches ever so slightly. "No, Craig, I said _you wouldn't understand_ , I knew you'd take it the wrong way," he almost moves forward, clenching his good hand into a fist. "I didn't..." He pauses, almost stopping the entire argument as he knew he wouldn't win. Craig was stubborn like that. "I didn't lie to you, not about that," he shifts, taking a step forward knowing he'd probably collapse if he didn't keep moving.

“But you did lie to me?!” was all Craig got from that. “You did fucking lie to me!” He takes another step away from him, lightly biting his lip to stop himself from sobbing. He couldn’t let Tyler know how much he had hurt him. “I can’t believe this… was our whole relationship just a fucking game to you?! Did we even _have_  a relationship?! Were you lying to me this _whole fucking time_?!”

Tyler snaps at this accusation, advancing on him suddenly and pinning him against the wall by his shoulder with one hand. " _Look at me,_ " he growls out, voice menacingly low. "I love you. I have loved you since day one, and no fucking bet, or any _stupid jacket_  will change that. You have _no idea_  how many times I tried to call that damn thing off," his hand clenches tightly to Craig's shoulder, solely from the sudden drain of all his energy.

“Why? Because I’m so insufferable that you couldn’t even date me when you’re getting something out of it?!” Craig chokes back a sob, and he desperately wants to shove Tyler off of him, but he can tell that he’s the only thing that’s keeping him upright, and even though he just found out that he meant nothing to Tyler, he still cared way too deeply to let him fall to the ground. “How much are you getting for this anyway?! Ten, twenty dollars?! Is that all my fucking feelings are worth to you?!”

Tyler shakes his head. " _Nothing._  I called off the bet after the first ten minutes I met you," his voice is strangely soft, drained of its usual fire. "I told you already," he replies, stepping away and immediately struggling to stay up. " _Evan. Evan, Evan Evan_ ," he clenches his hand, trying not to pass out so Evan wouldn't have to drag him back to bed.

Evan rushes forward to catch him, wrapping one arm around his waist and wrapping Tyler’s arm around his shoulders, supporting him so he wouldn’t crumple to the ground. He wanted to chastise him for getting up when he really shouldn’t have, but knew this wasn’t the time.

“I don’t believe you…” Craig said softly, refusing to look at him any longer. “If that were true, then you would’ve told me about this by now, but you never said a _goddamn word_ ,” he says, and begins shuffling towards the door. “The bet is still going on, isn’t it? You haven’t fucking won yet, have you? What was the fucking goal anyway? To get me to _fall in love with you_?” his voice cracks. “Well, congratu-fuck-ulations, mission fucking successful. You can cash in that cheque now,” he says with a wavering voice, and he looks up at Tyler one last time and can feel his heart splitting in two. He was such a fucking idiot for ever falling for him.

“And don’t worry about ever breaking it off with me, I can tell when I’m not wanted.” Shaking his head, Craig turns towards the door and leaves. “Fuck you Tyler, _fuck you._ ”

Tyler's fist tightens its grip on Evan's shirt but he says nothing, just staring numbly at the door. Not knowing what to say, Evan says nothing either and begins helping Tyler back towards his bed and sits him down on the edge of it. He grabs the grey button he was given and calls a nurse to hook him back up to the machine, and sighs, eyeing him with concern. Tyler doesn't say a word, just stares at the wall and lets blood seep out of the bandage wrapped around his wounded arm.

A nurse shows up almost immediately and Evan explains to her what happened, and she tuts to herself as she begins to change the bandage for him. Evan watches on in silence, wanting to talk to him about what just happened, but not wanting to say anything until after the nurse leaves and they were left alone.

Tyler stays totally silent, as though deep in thought. He pulls his arm into his lap when she finishes, leaning back against the bed. The nurse hooks him back up the IV, and then scolds him for ripping it out to begin with in a very motherly tone, and then scolds Evan for letting him, before finally scurrying off to tend to someone else.

Evan eyes Tyler’s dejected form for a moment, before asking if he was okay, even though he suspected that he already knew the answer.

Tyler doesn't look at him. "No," he replies simply, laying back in bed sedately instead of going after Craig like he'd been considering.

Evan sighs again, and strolls over to him to sit on the edge of his bed. “It’ll be alright,” he says, patting his hand consolingly.

Tyler looks over at him. "The greatest thing in my life just said 'fuck you' and left me," he replies, too broken to be upset with Evan.

“You know, there was a time when you said your truck was the greatest thing in you life,” Evan notes, and then realises that that comment probably didn’t help the situation _at all_ , and then adds “You can fix this.”

He eyes Evan for a moment. " _How_?" he asks, flinching at the memory of what happened to his car.

“You two can talk it out. Probably. Maybe. I mean, it’s worth a shot?” Evan tells him, forcing a small smile to comfort him.

Tyler stares him down. "Fake smiles don't look good on you, Ev. And it's not like I could go now anyway," he points out.

“Well, you might want to give him some space right now anyway, let him cool down a bit,” he shrugs. “But once you get out of here, you should _definitely_  go and talk to him. I’ll even drive you to his place if you want?” he offers with a gentle smile.

Tyler nods. "Yeah, sure. I can't, my car is fucked up," he sighs.

Evan pats his hand again. “You’ll win him back, and we’ll get you a new shitty truck too. You’ll bounce back from this.”

Tyler shoots him a glare. "I thought we went over this the last time you insulted my truck," he retorts, finding comfort in Evan.

Evan grins. “Last time I insulted your truck, you asked Craig out on a date. Maybe every time I insult your dumb truck, something good will happen. Maybe I should insult it more often,” he jokes, trying to lighten the mood and cheer him up as much as possible.

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Next time you insult my car it won't be me in the hospital," he replies, shifting and sitting up.

“Noted,” Evan says, and this time grabs his hand and gives it a small squeeze. “We’ll fix this, Tyler. We’ll fix this.”

Tyler squeezes his hand, pulling him into a tight hug and burying his face in Evan's neck. "What would I do without you?" He asks softly, as Evan grins and hugs him back.

* * *

 

When they pulled up the same place he'd been coming for to for months, he felt strangely… scared. Evan could tell, either by the nervous glances he kept sending to the apartment he knew Craig was in or the fact that he was already touching Evan's hand. "Fuck, what if he doesn't wanna talk to me?" he asks, nervously looking at Evan.

Evan sighed. “I… I can’t promise you that he _will_ … but you’ll never know if you don’t try. Just… go up there and say what you need to say, even if you have to yell it through his door or something,” he says, and pulls his hand from underneath Tyler’s so he could pat him on the shoulder. “And if he doesn’t talk to you today, then we can always give him some space and try again another time.”

Tyler sighs, staring him down and muttering how one day Evan was going to get him killed before he got out of the car and walked up to Craig's apartment, knocking and considering covering up the peephole but deciding against it, letting Craig decide for himself whether or not he wanted to talk. He almost didn't say anything, but decided he might as well and called out "Craig!" so he'd know who was there.

Craig was in bed cocooned in blankets, wearing the jacket Tyler had given him (a common occurrence over these last few days) when he heard the knock on the door, and groaned audibly into his pillow. He was half tempted to stay where he was and hope the visitor would go away on their own, but then he heard _that_  voice, that one voice he most definitely did _not_  want to hear right now, and his decision was made for him. He stayed still and pretended he wasn’t home, hoping Tyler would just leave him alone.

Tyler folds his arms across his chest, leaning his right shoulder against the door. "I know you're in there, and I know just as well you don't want to talk to me. Just… you didn't _listen_ , Craig, you fucking idiot," he clenches his fist, wishing Evan were here to comfort him. "You just _talked_ , and shut me out. And look where that got us," he waves around him with one hand, as though Craig could see him. "Fuck, I miss you so much. But you're clearly not ready to listen," he pauses, stepping away from the door. "You know where to find me," he walks away, left hand clenched tightly into a fist.

Meanwhile, Craig rolls onto his bed and stares up at his ceiling with a frown as he allows Tyler’s words to sink in. What did he mean he didn’t listen? He heard everything he needed to hear, and the truth was that Tyler didn’t care about him in the same way he cared about Tyler, assuming he even cared about him at all. He didn’t understand why he came to his apartment to talk or why he told him he missed him, because why would he? Craig was just a pawn in some stupid bet. Why would he miss that? He didn’t even apologise for what he did. He let out a sigh and buried his face in his hands, silently wondering what he did to ever deserve any of this.

Tyler walks to Evan's car, resting his arms against the roof and heaving a sigh. "He's not ready, Ev," he mumbles, rubbing his face.

Evan smiles sympathetically at him. “Then we’ll give him some more time, let him simmer, and maybe he’ll be more willing to talk to you when he hurts a little less and has had some time to think things through. He’ll come around, or I hope he will at least…”

Tyler sighs as he gets in, buckling up and muttering "Why'd we even come here," as he pulls out his phone.

“So you could win your boyfriend back,” Evan says simply as he starts up the car and pulls away from the curb. “I know he didn’t talk to you today, but there’s always next time! Don’t give up just yet. You’ll fix this, and I’ll be here to cheer you on every step of the way,” he grins, doing his best to hide the edge of worry that was creeping up on him that maybe they would never get back together, and one day he might have to sit Tyler down and try to convince him to start dating someone else.

Tyler puts his phone away, reaching over and resting one hand on Evan's arm. "You're almost _too_  positive, Ev," he lightly squeezes his arm.

“You really shouldn’t grab my arm when I’m driving,” Evan comments as he drives into an intersection, not noticing the red light. “You could cause an accident, if you’re not caref-”

As if on cue, the honking of car horns filled the air, followed by the screech of tyres, and a car slammed into Evan’s side of the car. Tyler has no time to react, eyes already on Evan like they usually were when he spoke. He had no warning time, but he could hear himself scream " _EVAN!_ " at the top of his lungs, as though it would help.

The car flipped and then rolled upon impact, Tyler’s air bag releasing but Evan’s didn’t and his head thumped hard against the steering wheel. The door was smashed in, crushing his arm against his torso, and the glass of the driver’s door window was shattered, the tiny fragments lodged into his bare skin. The car was upside down, but their seatbelts kept them strapped in their seats, and Evan’s free hand fell limp to the roof beneath them, and he hung there, eerily still.

Tyler immediately looks at Evan before even evaluating himself. "Evan?" his voice is a disbelieving whisper. "Fuck fuck fuck, Evan please, no, don't do this," his voice cracks and he knows he's crying, hands reaching to brush Evan's neck and search for a pulse. "Fuck this," he growls, struggling in his seat to get out and looking down to find his phone on the roof, totally intact. "Are you shitting me?!" he yells, fumbling to open his door before he tries to get out.

Once he manages to wiggle out of his seat and sets his feet on the roof, he unbuckled and crawls out, snatching his phone and almost immediately stumbling around to get to Evan and get him out. He opens the door, then pauses as he doesn't know how to touch Evan without hurting him.

With the door open and the huge dent no longer pinning his arm to his body, Evan’s left arm fell to the roof with a sickening thud, smacking against the dashboard as it fell. There was no change in his facial expression and he didn’t react in any way, his eyes remaining shut and his lips parted as he dangled completely unconscious. Blood dripped down from his forehead and onto the roof, his hair staining scarlet.

Tyler feels his heart rip in half at the sight and he forces himself to not look, instead shifting and lining his shoulders up with Evan's body so he'd fall in a position that Tyler could catch him in, clicking the seatbelt buckle and releasing him, shoving his pain away in favor of worrying about Evan. He crawls out of the car, carefully setting Evan on the ground and scooping him up in his arms, making him much easier to carry. "Now what?" he mutters to himself, frowning because he hadn't really thought this through.

Traffic had come to a complete standstill the second the accident had happened, the cars now parked at each road leading into the intersection as their occupants hopped out to watch the aftermath from afar. The other car that had driven into theirs lay abandoned a few feet away, the hood and grill smashed in and the engine smoking. The driver, a woman in her mid thirties, was visibly shaken and her hands were trembling as she stood a little off to the side, staring at Evan’s body with a mixture of horror and guilt. The sounds of someone on the phone calling an ambulance could be heard behind where they stood, and many of the bystanders around them were whipping out their phones to take videos and pictures.

Tyler stands totally still for a long time, entire body trembling with emotion as he debated moving to comfort the woman or staying still and further guaranteeing Evan's safety. But Tyler can't live knowing she'd blame herself, so he walks to her. "Hey," his voice is soft, coming off as soothing but really masking how scarred he felt. "It's okay, it's not your fault," he says, shifting Evan in his arms and feeling a pang of hurt when his head slumps against Tyler's chest.

She chokes back a sob, hand snapping up to cover her mouth while the other gripped the roof of her car for support, eyes fixed firmly on Evan’s limp body. “I-Is he…?” she stutters and trails off, unable to get the rest of the words out.

Tyler visibly flinches at the suggestion of her question. "I… I can't check, my hands are kind of full," he mumbles softly, risking a look down despite knowing he'd never get this image out of his head.

“D-Do you want me to…?” she asks, hand falling away from her face as she stood up straight in a feeble attempt to make herself seem stronger and more held together than she actually was.

Tyler doesn't glance up at her, transfixed on Evan. "Please," is all he can get out, eyes drinking in the blood that soaked his hair, his shirt, his arm, and the tiny pool of it gathering at and on his feet. It felt like he'd been stabbed, but deep down he knew he'd take that any day to whatever the fuck this was.

Sirens could be heard approaching them in the distance as she stepped forward, and with very gentle fingers, she lightly took his wrist, careful not to hurt him or jostle him too much. She placed two fingers and concentrated for a moment, before relief washed over her. “I can feel his pulse,” she informs him, a soft smile gracing her features.

Tyler's shoulders slump in relief. "Oh, thank fucking Christ," he sighs, pulling Evan a little tighter to him. He keeps his eyes on Evan, chewing on his lip. "Fuck, I'm so sorry Ev, this is all my fault," he quietly mumbles out, just barely hearing the sirens but not twitching slightly.

She looks up at Tyler’s broken expression with a frown, her shoulders sinking in guilt. “I-I am so sorry, dear. I didn’t see you coming and I tried to brake but…” she trailed off, glancing away as she took a shaky breath. “But I sincerely hope that he’ll be okay,” she adds, looking up at him again with sad, tearful eyes.

Either Tyler's faith is unwavering, or he's still in denial about the whole situation. "He'll be okay," he replies almost automatically. "He has to be," he mumbles, feeling the gravity sink in as he struggled harder and harder not to cry the more he stared at Evan, so he tore his eyes away and looked over the crowd.

Some of the crowd began to disperse when the ambulance showed up and stopped a little ways away, unable to be get to the intersection on account of the gridlocked traffic. A few bystanders here and there were still recording everything as discretely as they could manage, while others were no doubt snapchatting and live tweeting everything that was happening.

Two paramedics broke through the throng of people and rushed towards them, making a beeline towards Evan and Tyler. “Were you in the crash?” one asks, eyes trailing over them, as the other takes the other driver aside to talk to her.

Tyler stares him down for a moment. " _No_ , I just really like standing in intersections covered in my best friends' blood, _of course I was_!" he snaps, turning to gesture to the remains of Evan's car. "He's gonna kill me for destroying that stupid thing," he sighs, turning back to the paramedic.

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think you should be worrying about the car right now,” the paramedic states as he rolls up his sleeves, and immediately begins checking for Evan’s pulse, carefully taking his wrist and counting his heartbeats on his watch, muttering the numbers under his breath. Once he was finished, he let go of his arm and gently lays it on Evan’s chest, and turned to his partner and called “We’re going to need a stretcher for this one!”

Tyler watches them carefully, not in any way willing to be separated from Evan yet, much less be forced to call all his friends and relive what had just happened. The other paramedic nods and escorts the other driver to the ambulance to check up on her properly. “Stay here, sir, we’ll be right back. Don’t move him too much,” the paramedic warns him before jogging after them so they could fetch the stretcher, leaving Tyler to stand alone once again.

Knowing that they were probably looking for Evan's best interests, he stays still and looks around at the people still gathered, as he had failed to notice anything aside from Evan thus far. One kid in particular who couldn’t have been any older than fifteen locks eyes with him, and for a brief moment, stares at him like a deer caught in headlights before he stops filming, turns and scampers off.

Both paramedics return with a stretcher, wheeling it through the still traffic towards them as quickly as they can. The paramedic that assisted the woman reaches to take Evan from him, but then stops. “May I?” he asks politely.

Tyler hesitates for a moment, then gives Evan up as he knows they have a better chance to help Evan than he does. "Can I at least go with him?" he asks, eyes practically trained on Evan.

“You have to,” the paramedic that spoke to him before replies as his partner takes Evan and gently lays him on the stretcher and begins strapping him in. “If you were in the crash too, then we need to take you with us so we can examine you and make sure you aren’t injured as well.”

Tyler just nods, letting one hand rest on Evan's leg ever so gently. "I was, yeah," he confirms, watching them strap him in.

The paramedic nods. “Then I’m going to have to ask you to follow us,” he says, and once Evan is buckled to the stretcher, they begin wheeling it towards the ambulance as quickly yet gently as they can, wanting to get him help fast, but not wanting to jostle him and risk injuring him more.

The other driver was waiting by the ambulance when they approached it, and the paramedics loaded the stretcher into the back. “I need you both to get in here with him,” he asks, hopping in next to Evan and immediately begins fiddling with an oxygen tank. The woman driver casts a glance towards Tyler, allowing him to enter first as she knew he’d want to remain close to his friend.

Tyler steps in, settling down beside Evan and glancing at everything briefly before focusing on Evan again. He shifts uncomfortably, wanting to touch Evan but not wanting to hurt him. So he draws out his phone, checking the messages for anything he found absolutely vital.

As he pulls out his phone, the doors to the ambulance shut once everyone was on board and a moment later, the ambulance begins to move. The paramedic in the back with them places an oxygen mask over Evan’s mouth, and then opens his eyelids and shines a light into them. He then begins poking at and examining the wound on his head, muttering diagnoses to himself.

Tyler locks his phone and puts it away, favoring keeping an eye on Evan to being on his phone. He doesn't ask any questions, but he knows it can't be good.

They ride to the hospital in silence, and as soon as they arrive, the doors of the ambulance are flung open and the paramedics begin hoisting Evan’s stretcher out of the back. Tyler is quick to follow, never wanting to stray too far from Evan but not being able to figure out why. They wheeled him into the building and took him down a corridor, but a nurse stopped Tyler and prevented him from following any further.

“Were you in the accident as well, sir? Or are you just a loved one accompanying him?” she asks, clipboard in hand, ready to write down any important and relevant information if she needs to.

Tyler stops. "Yeah, I was. I carried him out of the car," he replies, taking the moment to gather himself.

“Right this way then, and we’ll find a doctor to check you out,” she says in a chipper tone and leads him down the hallway Evan was wheeled down, but takes him into a room to their immediate right.

The doctor looks up at him with a smile as he appears at the door, and she gestures for him to step into the office and to take a seat on the bed in the corner. “Hi there! Were you in the car accident on the intersection just down the road from here?” she asks as she rummages through a drawer full of medical supplies.

Tyler narrows his eyes. "Yeah, how'd you know about that?" he asks, watching her hands and wondering what she's looking for.

“The nurse informed me beforehand, and I was just making sure you were my patient,” she replies, and eventually produces a simple pen and immediately starts scribbling something or other on a pad of sticky notes. “Now, what did you say your name was?” she asks, glancing up at him.

He meets her gaze. "I'm Tyler Connors," he replies, briefly wondering if she'd want to know Evan's name as well.

“Alright Tyler, so why don’t you tell me what happened and where you’re hurting so I have a rough idea on what to look into?” she asked, sitting at her desk and crossing her legs.

Tyler pauses for a moment, clearly having never for a moment considered his own pain. "I… uh, I mean I guess my chest hurts, but it's probably still the mental image I have of..." he trails off, staring down at his hands to reassure himself Evan isn't in them now. He frowns when he finds blood on his shirt, however.

“Alright, but I’m going to take a look at your chest then just to be sure,” she says kindly, before getting up and approaching him. She rolls up the sleeves of her labcoat, and then begins firmly pressing her fingers into Tyler’s ribs. “I can tell from the bruising that you’ve definitely hurt your chest, but let me know if I hurt you anywhere else, okay?”

He nods, his high pain tolerance allowing for nothing more than a wince when she touched a certain spot on his chest, frowning and noting aloud that it had hurt.

“Hmm, we might need to send you for an x-ray then,” she notes, and then heads over to her computer and quickly typing something in, and then approaching him again. “Alright, I’m going to listen to your beat then and make sure you can breathe properly. If you’ve broken a rib, then there’s a chance your lungs could’ve been damaged too,” she explains and puts on the stethoscope that was draped around her neck. “Can you lift up your shirt for me and start taking slow deep breaths?”

Tyler lifts his shirt up most of the way, revealing a few nasty and fresh bruises from the airbag as he took deep, slow breaths like she'd instructed.

She carefully moved the stethoscope to different areas of his chest, and then gestured for him to lean forward and do the same on his back, nodding to herself. “Your breathing is fine, and I’m sure that special someone in your life will be glad to know your heart is in tact as well,” she jokes, giving him a small wink as she steps away again.

Tyler fakes a tiny chuckle. "Oh, you don't know the half of it," he mutters to himself, feeling the urge to dig his phone out to see if Craig had texted, knowing full well he hadn't.

“Now, what about that head of yours? Do you remember banging it on anything?” she asks, and heads back to her drawer to search for the next set of tools she needs.

Tyler flinches at the recollection of the crash happening all over again in slow motion, but manages a strangled " _I_  didn't, no," and bites his lip.

“Well I’m just going to give you a quick once over just to be safe,” she tells him, and produces a small torch. “I’m going to shine this light into your eyes for a moment,” she informs him, flicking the torch on and shining it into his left eye, and then his right. “Alright, and now I want you to follow my finger,” she instructs, holding up one index finger and moving it in front of his face, watching his eyes closely.

Tyler watches her finger move, thoughts drifting back once again to Evan and his well being. He bites down the urge to ask, letting the doctor continue with her checkup.

“No concussion, excellent!” she cheers with a bright smile. “You’ll be glad to know we’re almost finished now. I just want to make sure that you’re able to stretch out and move all your limbs and digits without any pain or difficulty, so can you stand up and move around for me?”

Tyler stands, walking around the room with no trouble other than the immense weight he wished was back in his arms.

The doctor nods as she watches him, and then grins brightly. “Alright, I think that’s you then! I’m going to send you straight to radiology to get an x-ray of that rib as you’ve at least bruised it, but it could be broken on top of that but someone over there will take care of you,” she explains, scribbling down information onto a document of some sort and handing it to him. “Give this to one of the nurses outside and she’ll help you get sorted and take you to a waiting room.”

Tyler nods, taking the paper and leaving the room to find a nurse, offering her the paper without looking twice at it.

The nurse takes it and glances at it, nodding as she read and then waves for him to follow her. She leads him down a series of winding corridors, and they eventually arrive at a small waiting room that contained a few other patients wearing casts and slings. “Okay… Tyler, is it? The doctor will call on you when it’s your turn, but there might be a bit of a wait. Feel free to call anyone and let them know that you’re here if you or someone else hasn’t already.”

Tyler nods, pushing away the first name that came to mind and digging his phone out, scrolling through his contacts until he found Brock. He immediately decides to call him, as he knew if anyone would understand not to ask, it'd be him and Tyler really needed that right now. He collapsed into one of the chairs as the phone rang, burying his face in his hands as the weight of the situation came crashing down upon him.

Brock was browsing the cereal aisle in a local supermarket when his phone rang. He puts one of the boxes he was looking at back on the shelf, and pulls his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the caller ID for a second before answering. “Oh hey Tyler, what’s up?” he greets casually, not suspecting that anything could be wrong.

Tyler lets out a shuddering sigh that faintly sounds like crying. "Brock," his serious, sad tone sounds like he's about to snap in half. "Can you come down to the hospital? I really need someone here with me, things… kind of went to shit," he explains briefly, barely holding back tears as Brock's cheery disposition reminded him of the last thing Evan had said, which cut deep.

Brock’s heart drops. “Wait, hospital?!” he repeats, frozen in place, the hand that gripped his shopping cart tightening. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Tyler dodges the question entirely. "Ev… Evan, he..." he whimpers, the mental image stuck in his brain. "There's fuckin videos probably, go look for them and just get here god damn it, I can't fill out his paperwork if they won't let me leave either, I broke a rib," he stays on the line instead of hanging up like he so wanted, liking Brock too much to not let him speak.

Tyler’s response only raised more questions than it answered, but Brock quickly realised that he wasn’t going to get any answers out of him over the phone. “Okay, I’ll be right there,” he promises, and debates on what he should do with the half full cart, before deciding to just leave it there, even if it was a little rude of him to dump all that work on the employees. “Will you and Evan be okay until I get there?”

Tyler takes a little too long to respond. "I'll be okay," is all he says for awhile. "They won't let me see Evan yet, but… jus-..." he hangs up suddenly, as though cutting off the call would stop the memories and guilt from flooding back, but it didn't.

The call suddenly cutting out only encouraged Brock to get to the hospital faster, and the heavy feeling of worry in his chest grew as he wondered what on earth had happened to them.

It was twenty minutes before he reached Tyler, and Brock politely thanked the nurse that led him to him, before approaching him with a soft smile. “Hey,” he greets as he steps closer. “Everything okay?”

Tyler's gaze is transfixed on the ground, but he speaks. "I can't get that image out of my head. Just… standing there, in the middle of the road. Evan dangling from my arms and _fuck_  he was so light it burned me, like he should be heavier. His hair was red, 'cause his _fucking airbag_  didn't deploy, but mine did and _God damn it_  why me?" he's crying before he even finished talking, face hidden in his hands. "There was so much blood," is his helpless little whimper, as though he could've stopped it.

Brock’s smile was quick to wipe off his face and he drops down into the seat next to him. “Hey hey shhhh it’s okay,” he comforts him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug. His own heartbeat was beginning to quicken as he worried about Evan, his mind racing with questions, but he didn’t want to pressure Tyler into talking about it if he was too upset to.

Tyler shakes beneath his touch, mumbling tiny phrases here and there. "Had to drive me.... too nice, always too nice... _fucking_  car... didn't… it's my fault." He can feel both their phones start to blow up as the rest of the group slowly finds the pictures online, but Tyler is too shell shocked to care. "I need to see him, Evan. I need to see Evan," he almost looks up, as though he'd go right now, but stops when he realizes something. "Probably still in surgery… fucking porcupine… glass," his mumbles are worrying at best, and very vague.

Brock knows he should probably check his phone, but he had far more pressing matters to attend to. “Tyler… Tyler I need you to tell me what happened to Evan…” he says slowly, trying his best not to panic at everything Tyler was spouting and remain strong for him.

Tyler looks up, eyes flashing to Brock. "We… I got in a crash a few days ago, totaled my car," he tugs part of his shirt away to reveal a stitched up scar by his shoulder. "Craig heard us talking and we got in a fight, Evan was taking me to his house 'cause I'd just gotten out of the hospital and I wanted to fix things," he mumbles, a part of him desperately aching for Craig's presence. "I… when we left, he was just as positive as he always fucking is, and I touched his arm. He said, 'Tyler, don't...'” Tyler trails off, tears pricking his eyes. “'Don't do that, you'll get us in an accident'," Tyler pauses for a long time, trying to relax himself. "He never finished the sentence before this car sideswiped us, hit Evan's side and my airbag deployed, but his," he chokes up. "His didn't, and I was looking right at him and his fucking head slammed into the steering wheel and I knew he was just... gone," he whispers out, lower lip trembling. He pauses for Brock's reaction, looking over at him.

“...’Gone’?!” Brock repeats, voice cracking as something inside him snapped in half, eyes filling with tears as he immediately thought the worst. “What- What do you mean he was gone?!”

Tyler shakes his head. "He went limp, I fucking lost it. Grabbed my phone and got out, went to get him an-" he stops abruptly, the image of Evan's twisted, bloody body fresh in his mind and he can't go on with the story, numbly shaking his head. "Fucking… so much blood, the entire window was fucking stuck in his arm, oh _God_  the sound it made," he shudders.

Brock shuffles closer and tightens his grip on him, more for his own comfort than for Tyler’s. “But you… you got him out okay, right?” he asks in a worried and broken tone. “Like, he’s still… still…” he gulps, unable to get the words out.

Tyler doesn't answer him. "Look at the Skype chat, I'm sure someone found a video or something, I saw people staring," he shrugs, voice as numb and cracked and broken as he was.

Brock watches him for a moment before hesitantly fishing his phone out of his pocket and opening up Skype chat, and sure enough their group was filled with worried messages and various links to videos, pictures, and articles. “Yeah they found some things,” Brock confirms quietly, unsure as to whether or not he wants to open any of them.

Tyler slowly reaches over, hand resting over top of Brock's phone as he locked it and quietly mumbles "You don't need to see that," as he pushes Brock's phone away from him.

Brock nods, and puts his phone back into his pocket, figuring he’d update the others later when he was sure Tyler was fine. “What about you though? How are you doing? And be honest, Tyler. Don’t tell me you’re okay if you’re not.”

Tyler sits upright, turns to look straight at him. "Physically, I feel pretty okay. Mentally, emotionally… I wish it was fucking me and not him," he says, everything about him totally serious as he turns away from Brock to look at the room they were in.

Some of the other patients that had clearly overhead everything they had said looks away when Tyler looked up, diverting their attention to anything that seemed remotely interesting at the time. Brock ignored them, and instead pulls Tyler into a hug. “Oh Tyler,” was all he had to say as he squeezes him tightly.

Tyler hugs him back, trying and failing to hide how much the hug hurt as he winced. "Fuck," he curses softly, leaning away from Brock.

It wasn’t until then that Brock remembered his broken rib. “Oh fuck, sorry,” he apologises, smiling wearily at him, and then sighs. “Everything will be okay, Tyler. I mean, they _have_  to be. Evan’s tough, he’ll pull through this,” he says, though it’s difficult to tell whether he was trying to reassure Tyler or himself. “He’ll be okay…”

Tyler glares at him, eyes cold and dead inside. "That's real easy for you to say, Brock," he holds back whatever else he was going to say, clearly just pent up about being unable to see Evan and having a busted rib.

Brock winces at his sharp tone. “I’m sorry, I just… I just want him to be okay…” he says softly and swallows hard, glancing down at his feet.

Tyler just glares him down, clenching his fist and immediately wincing at the memories of Evan that come flooding back. "What the fuck is happening to Evan?" He hisses under his breath, looking around the room and growing restless after being stuck here for so long.

“I’ll go see if I can find something out,” Brock tells him and stands up, feeling utterly useless, and wanting to do _something_  to help. “I’ll be back in a little bit, okay?”

Tyler just nods, watching him go and whipping out his phone. He checks for a message from Craig, unable to find a reason why Craig might message him as he skims his messages and all too quickly opened Skype. He skims the onslaught of worried messages, not too terribly inclined to tell them anything just yet as every tiny thing that reminded him of either Evan or Craig hurt terribly.

* * *

 

Craig had every intention of ignoring every message he received, but after a few minutes of vibrating, he got sick of the buzzing and had to check, if only to get his phone to shut up.

It wasn’t Tyler trying to get in contact with after his drop in visit earlier like he’d thought, and deep down, he was a little disappointed that not a single one of the messages that flooded into his inbox were from him. The majority seemed to be from both Adam and Tom, with a few from the other developers of Dead Realm sprinkled in between, and curiosity began to creep up on him as he wondered what was wrong, and opened one at random.

_Adam: Uhh… Did you guys see what happened to Evan?! :O link_

That one group text along with Tom’s shocked and worried responses made his stomach churn with concern, and he hesitantly opened the link provided, heart leaping when he was brought to a news site. The headline was enough to make his jaw drop, the words ‘YouTube Star’ and ‘car crash’ immediately jumping out at him.

Craig almost texted them a quick ‘Holy fuck’ before immediately changing his mind, figuring that he should at least watch the accompanied video and provide himself with some context before tossing himself into the conversation.

The video starts with a young news anchor sitting behind a desk, and he introduces himself and his company before launching into the story. "YouTube star VanossGaming and his close friend I AM WILDCAT are both in hospital today after a nasty car crash on a local intersection, we have some video footage here but I warn you it _is_  scarring."

Craig barely had time to react to that fact that his boyf- _ex-boyfriend_ , was in the crash as well before some vertically filmed phone footage of the crash was displayed on screen. It started off with a tourist talking to their friend who was filming their holiday to LA, only to have an ear piercing muffled scream cut through their conversation. Craig could feel goosebumps as Tyler’s loud call of Evan’s name crackled through his speakers, and then the camera turned to their car just in time to see another car slam into the side.

Craig could only watch on completely frozen in shock, as the camera remained fixed on the accident, and the tourists' comments of “Holy shit!” and “Oh my God!” filled the air. After a moment of nothing happening, the passenger side door finally opened and Craig choked out a sob of relief he didn’t realise he was holding back when Tyler climbed out.

Without even hesitating, Tyler stumbled over to the other side of the car, and Craig examined his blurry form the best he could for any injuries, but as far as he could tell, he was alright, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved again.

He watched on as Tyler flung the driver’s side door open, and then paused, and then started hastily trying to unbuckle Evan and carrying him out on his back. Whatever relief he felt from finding out that Tyler was still breathing left him the second he lay eyes on Evan. He was scarily limp and unmoving, and Craig watched in horror as Tyler lay him down on the ground before scooping him up as gently as he could into his arms, staring down at him as if his entire world had just ended (an expression that looked very similar to the one he was wearing when Craig walked out of that hospital room a few days ago, but he wasn’t going to think about that right now).

The segment of the video ends after the driver of the other car climbs out of her vehicle and walks over to Tyler, and it cuts out after he looks directly into the camera. The video cuts back to the anchor and Craig almost screamed at his screen for them to show Tyler again, but he bit his lip and slumped further into bed dejectedly instead.

"No word on their condition but they are hospitalized and being visited by fellow friend and YouTuber Moo Snuckel, still waiting on word from him on their condition,” the anchor finishes with, pauses as he thinks about something, and then adds “That's quite a name."

Craig could only stare at the thumbnails of the related videos that popped up on the player in shock, his heart sinking into his stomach. Even if Tyler had broken his heart, it still hurt and worried him to see him and Evan in so much pain, and he was in two minds as to whether or not he should send him a text to ask if he was okay, because even though Tyler had cut him so deeply, he still cared for him more than he cared to admit and he couldn’t bare the thought of him lying in a hospital bed somewhere, broken and injured.

His hands shook a little as he stared at the phone, and in the end, he sends a quick text before setting his phone aside, and buried himself underneath his covers, crying softly into his pillow.

_Craig: hey - heard what happened. hope you and Evan are doing okay x_

* * *

 

Tyler walked a little slower this time as he knew he'd managed to break a rib which made breathing painful, in addition to the bruises practically covering his chest from the crash. He kept the x-ray in one hand as he returned to the waiting room, secretly hoping to be allowed to see Evan now. He found Brock waiting on him, so he immediately found his way to his friend. "Find anything important?" He asks, watching Brock.

“He’s still alive, at least,” Brock informs him with a small smile. “He’s still unconscious though, but he’s out of surgery and resting in a room upstairs. We’re _technically_  not allowed to visit him until visiting hours because we’re not family, but because all of his family is in Canada, the nurse said she’s willing to make an exception and let us in to keep him company.”

Tyler's entire disposition changes at the word 'alive' and he bounces on his feet until Brock finishes. "Where is he? What room?" He asks, hand tightening its grip on his paper as he felt the desperate urge to be near Evan flood over him.

“Upstairs. Come on, I’ll show you,” Brock says and stands up, waving for him to follow him. As they make their way towards an elevator, he glances down at the x-ray in Tyler’s hands. “How’d it go? You okay?”

Tyler shakes his head dismissively. "Broke a rib, not important. Evan's priority number one," he replies, focused more so on their destination than his broken rib.

Brock frowns at his dismissive attitude and lack of concern for his own safety, but he waves it off as Tyler being too worried about Evan to be worried about himself and thinks nothing of it.

They ride the elevator up a few floors in silence, sharing it with a few other visitors who eyed Tyler sympathetically, almost as if they recognised him from somewhere. The lift dinged as they reached their stop, and Brock lead their way down the winding corridors until they reached a room at the end of one of the halls.

“He’s in this one, and I haven’t been in there yet since I figured I should wait for you, but… he might not be in the best condition, so… prepare yourself,” Brock warns, eyeing Tyler with concern.

Tyler doesn't hear anything past _'He's in this one'_  and steps in, everything about him seeming to stop at the door. He stands in the middle of the room for a split second, before sticking to Evan's side like glue. "Oh Jesus fuck," he hisses under his breath, hand immediately brushing Evan's jaw. "God he looks..." he doesn't finish his sentence, torn between awful and so much better than when he last saw him.

The blood has been cleaned from his face, and instead his cheek was peppered with tiny scars from the glass, and a few stitches here and there. Evan’s head is wrapped in a clean bandage, and one of his arms is in a pink cast and a tan sling. He wasn’t wearing an oxygen mask, but his chest still rises and falls as he breathes. His non broken arm is hooked up to an IV, and the heart monitor beeps rhythmically with his heart beat.

“Peaceful?” Brock finishes for him, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him so they could have some privacy.

Tyler almost doesn't hear him, so wrapped up in Evan. "Better. Less bloody," his hand drifts up to brush against his head bandages, then stops at his cheek. "Shit, I didn't even notice this," he mumbles, taking his time to soak everything in about Evan. He lets one thumb ever so gently brush over one of the smaller scars, then without hesitation kisses his cheek. Tyler looks down at the non bandaged arm, looking past the IV for any bruising he might've caused as he sat in the chair right beside Evan.

Not knowing what else to say, Brock stays quiet and remains by the door to let Tyler have his moment, eyes fixed on Evan. He desperately wanted to step in and drop down next to Tyler to take Evan’s hand for reasons he’s never admitted aloud, but he shoved back his own feelings as he was much more worried about how Tyler was taking this for the time being. He could always break down later when he’s alone.

Tyler takes a few moments to calm himself, seeming to find an immediate comfort in Evan's hand that Brock hasn't seen from him in hours. Not even holding it, just letting his fingers brush over Evan's hand seemed to be enough. He sits in silence for a few moments before sighing. "Fuck, thank god he's okay," he mutters in relief and leans back in his chair.

“Yeah,” Brock breathes, and steps a little further into the room. “We should probably let the others know that too, huh?” he thinks aloud, gaze still firmly locked on Evan.

Tyler doesn't have to look at him for more than two seconds to recognize the look in his eyes. "You love him." It isn't a question because Tyler has no doubt, he's seen that look before. "Come here, I don't bite," he beckons to Brock as he pulls his phone out.

Brock shuffles further into the room when prompted, but still hovers a little bit away. “Am I that obvious, huh?” he tries to chuckle, but it catches in his throat, and he frowns deeply at Evan before letting out a shaky sigh.

Tyler gets up, silently crossing the room and pulling Brock into a hug. There was something about the comforting touch that caused Brock to break, and he slowly but tightly wraps his arms around Tyler, and buries his face into his shoulder, and begins crying quietly into his shirt. Tyler lets his hand rest on Brock's back, saying nothing about how much his chest hurt and simply letting him get everything off his chest.

Brock’s fingers curl into Tyler’s shirt, and for a few minutes, does nothing but sob and hiccup into his shoulder. Eventually his crying calms into shaky breaths, and he pulls away, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Sorry…” he mutters. “You’re the one who was in the crash and here I am bawling like a baby...”

Tyler shakes his head, determined to hide the slight pain Brock had caused by burying his face into Tyler's chest. "It's fine, Brock," he replies. "Stick around awhile, or go edit. I don't care. I'm staying here with Evan," he shrugs, heading back and collapsing into what will presumably become _his_  chair in the next ten minutes. He pulls out his phone and replies to Craig’s text saying that he's okay, nothing important has broken (yet) and that Evan, thankfully, is alive and sleeping next to him, not forgetting to include a tiny 'x' at the end and a picture of Evan and himself.

“I’ll stay for a little while, if that’s okay?” he asks softly, and wanders around to the chair on the other side of the bed and sits down, watching Evan sleep. Tyler glances up at him every so often from his phone, finding the lovestruck look in Brock's eyes almost cute. But some part of it reminded him of Craig, and it burned.

As if on cue, Tyler’s phone buzzed with another text from Craig. _‘Glad to hear that. You two take care :)’_  Tyler's heart wrenches slightly knowing that all he had to say was 'Glad to hear that', as though it hadn't bothered him at all. So he texts back with a rather off the wall message, not sure why he felt compelled to say it. _'Brock is so in love with Evan it'd be the cutest damn thing in this room if every time I looked at him I didn't see you.'_  And he hit send before he could convince himself not to, switching over to Skype to inform the guys he was okay.

The second Tyler types into Skype, the group chat explodes with questions from everyone who happened to be online.

_Lui: Are you okay??_

_Nogla: How’s Evan??_

_Marcel: What the hell happened anyway? The videos showed jack shit_

Tyler would be lying if he didn't admit he wished they were more worried about _him_  than about what happened.

_Tyler: I'm fine, Evan's… alive, and Brock is here. What fuckin' video, Marcel?_

_Marcel: not just one there’s loads, I’ll try and find you a link_

_Nogla: Nevermind that, what the fuck do you mean by ‘Evan’s… alive’??_

Tyler is more than willing to never see a video of that ever, considering he barely wanted any memories of the event.

_Tyler: yeah dude, fuck the video. I'm done with that shit. Evan is unconscious. He's covered in bandages and stitches but he won't wake up, so for now he's just '...alive'._

_Lui: :(_

_Brian: Fucking hell..._

_Nogla: and you’re okay?_

_Tyler:...yeah, I'm okay._

_Nogla: and Brock is taking it alright?_  

Tyler pauses to look up, finding Brock staring at Evan. "You look like a lovestruck little puppy, Brock," he sighs aloud, ignoring the pang in his chest as Craig bubbles back into his head, like he usually seems to recently.

_Tyler: he's the most okay out of all of us, dude. Brock is fine._

_Marcel: thank fuck you’re all okay, we were worried sick about you two_

_Nogla: are you allowed visitors?_

_Tyler: technically they're counting us as family since none of Evan's is going to show up. So… yeah. Come on by._

_Marcel: I would if I wasn’t stuck in England… :/_

_Lui: :o Nogla and I will come!_

_Nogla: yeah we’ll come ^___^ want us to bring anything?_

_Tyler: a blanket, maybe. I can't exactly drive anywhere._

_Nogla: alright, see you soon (::)_

_Tyler: oh yeah and a phone charger, I'll probs need it later._

Tyler locks his phone and shoves it away, looking around the room and deciding he'd rather not leave this room if he could help it, as the closer he was to Evan the more he could guarantee both his and Evan's safety.

* * *

 

He hadn't even been asleep for five minutes before he woke up trembling in a cold sweat, and that fact alone pissed Tyler off. He was grateful for the blanket and charger Nogla had brought for him, both of which were in use now. The panic from the dream didn't fade however, as having a nightmare about the truth wasn't ever too particularly calming when you woke up to find it lying in front of you.

Tyler wasn't aware he was dialing Craig's number until he'd already hit call, as though on autopilot and that thought scared him.

Craig is awoken by the sound of his phone ringing, and he groans into his pillow as he rolls onto his side to grab it. He flinches at the bright light that shines into his eyes, and his heart sinks when he sees who was calling him. His thumb hovers over the ‘answer call’ button for a moment, before he decides that he really wasn’t up for talking to him yet, and sighs, dropping his phone back onto the bedside table and covering his ears with his pillow.

_Of course Craig wouldn't answer, why would he wanna talk to me?_  Tyler spitefully hisses to himself when it goes to voicemail, but he pours his thoughts out anyway. "Hey. I know you probably fuckin' hate me right about now and trust me, that makes two of us. I know you won't look at this for probably a few days, if you do at all and I don't blame you. It was a dick move and I'm so sorry. I..." He stops, looking at Evan only to find that he's already rubbing Evan's hand. "God, he might be dead and it's all my fault. I..." His voice cracks, indicating tears. "What if he doesn't wake up?! What if I killed him? I… I can't live without you, fuck Craig I'm freaking the hell out right now. _Help me_."

He's not sure how long the message is, or how many messages it must have split into, but he's too scared to worry about that, pushing his phone away from him and clinging to Evan like a wet towel.

Craig’s phone rings a few times, but he ignores it each time, knowing it was just Tyler. After a few minutes, his phone was silent, and then it buzzed with a text. Out of curiosity, he grabs it again, and is marginally surprised to see that Tyler had left him a few voicemails. He debates with himself as to whether or not he should listen to them, and then sighs, deciding against it. He was probably just calling to talk to him about that stupid bet again, and he wasn’t in the mood to listen to that right now. He set his phone to the side again, before rolling over and trying to fall back asleep.

Tyler doesn't sleep that night, instead spends most of his time sitting on Evan's bed and rubbing Evan's leg.

* * *

 

Tyler had let it go for a week, no video from him or Evan. Their friends were totally okay recording videos with other people, but the fans were worried sick. They loved Evan and Tyler, and knowing they were seriously hurt was killing them. So, Tyler made up his mind and called Brock, asked him to bring a laptop. He took his phone out and starts to record a video. He sat on the edge of the bed beside Evan, hand resting over top of the unconscious man's. "Hey guys, it's Wildcat here," he starts the video off as loud as he always does.

He shifts the camera, getting off the bed to stand beside it and tightening his grip on Evan's hand. It still killed him that Evan never reciprocated it, but he'd learn to live. "I just figured I'd make a video saying I'm okay," he lets the camera pan over his body, revealing no scars they could see. "I broke a rib, if it helps at all," he tugs his shirt up to reveal bruises covering the right side of his chest, then drops his shirt once more. "Evan is right here, I've been with him all week to make sure he's okay," he pans the camera to Evan, one arm in a sling. "He broke an arm, he's been unconscious since it happened and both our cars are wrecked so even if I wanted to leave I couldn't. Brock's been feeding Kino, taking care of him." As if on cue, Brock walks in and he pans the video to Brock, walking over to hug him. "How's it going little buddy?" And compared to Brock, Tyler looks dead. His skin is twice as pale, the bags under his eyes accentuated and he looked skinnier, weak, as though he hasn't eaten.

After hugging Brock, he then sits on the bed beside Evan with one hand on Evan's. "I really fucked up with someone I absolutely love, and I'll probably never make it up to him but if he ever sees this… I'm so fucking sorry." He looks at Brock, indicating that he'll tell him later. "Just… fuck, I miss him," and he ends the video, messing around on his phone to post it.

“Hey,” Brock finally greets him once he was finished, not wanting to interrupt his commentary, and sets the plastic bag filled with food stuffs onto the bedside table next to Tyler’s chair, nudging the ‘get well soon’ cards out of the way. “I think your puppy really misses you,” he says, even though he was much more curious about what happened with Craig, but didn’t want to push him into talking about it if he didn’t want to.

Tyler glances up. "Of course he does, but I'm not leaving Evan," he shrugs it off, switching the topic. "Did Evan ever tell you about the bet, or not?" He asks as the video renders, setting the phone down in favor of the food.

Brock takes a moment to rake his brain for any memories of any sort of bet, then shakes his head. “No, not that I can remember,” he says and wanders over to the other side of the bed to sit down in the empty chair.

Tyler shifts,"Well, when I first met him I was out drinking with Ev, and he made a bet with me that I couldn't buy a drink f- are you fucking serious?!" He suddenly snaps, having never realized he'd _lost_. He sighs before continuing. "...Made a bet that I couldn't buy a drink and go on a date with whoever walked in next. And Craig walked in, so we talked for awhile and I forced Evan to call off the bet ‘cause I liked him too much to hurt him when he found out," Tyler begins, glaring furiously at Evan since he'd just recalled that he lost.

“And I’m guessing he found out?” Brock asks, piecing together what likely happened between them, smiling at him sympathetically.

Tyler sighs. "I was at the hospital for crashing my truck. He said 'fuck you' and Evan was the only thing keeping me on my feet," he quietly mumbles.

“I’m sorry buddy,” Brocks says and bites back a comment about how he’d find someone else someday, realising that that’s probably not something he’d want to hear. “Did you not tell him that you called the bet off?”

Tyler shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. He wasn't listening. He just talked, zoned me out and said his piece then left," he says, looking over. "I could've told him I fucked polar bears and he woulda thought I cheated on him," he mutters spitefully.

“Well, maybe you two can talk things out again when he’s not so mad and has had some time to calm down?” Brock suggests in a hopeful tone.

Tyler stops suddenly, freezing up. "That's what fucking got Evan in here, man. I'm done, I give up. I'm staying here with Ev, where I can protect something that still cares," he sounds set in his idea, like he's ready to give up the man that still means everything to him.

Brock winces at that and his expression saddens. “It’s up to you whether or not you want to make up with Craig, but we all care about you, and no amount of bad break ups is going to change that. You really can’t stay here in forever…” he frowns. He was willing to put up with Tyler’s refusal to leave the hospital at first as he thought it was just his way of dealing with what happened, but a week had passed and now he was beginning to worry about him.

Tyler sighs. "I _do_ , there's nothing in the world I want more than him. But he's not ready to listen, so..." he trails off, eyes drifting back to Evan.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Brock mutters, lightly biting at his lip as his gaze travels down to Evan for a second, but he forced himself to focus back on Tyler again. “But one day he’ll be ready to listen to you, and when that day comes, you should get out of here and go talk to him. I’ll watch Evan for you, and you can even borrow my car if you’d like,” he says, smiling softly.

Tyler visibly flinches, hand tightening on Evan. "No. No cars. I'm staying here." Any willingness fades at the mention of a car, and he shifts away.

Brock was about to question him on what he meant by that, when the realisation hit him. “Are you… scared of getting into another accident?”

He glares at Brock."Why the fuck wouldn't I be?! I just got in two accidents in a row, Brock!" Tyler snaps.

Brock flinches at his sharp tone, and he had to wonder if this new fear was also part of the reason why he refused to go home. “You have had a pretty unlucky streak recently, but the odds of getting into another accident are super low. You’d be okay,” he tries to assure him.

Tyler shakes his head furiously,"Not a chance. I'm not fucking going, and I'm not getting you hurt, too," he glares at Brock.

“Me? Why would you-” Brock cuts himself off when he remembers something Tyler had told him back on the day of the accident, and he frowned. _Tyler blamed himself for this._  He wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but there was video evidence proving otherwise, and Brock never could bring himself to lie to anyone, even if it was only to make someone feel better. “You don’t have to go anywhere just yet if you’re not ready to, but you really can’t stay here forever. Your puppy misses you, your friends miss you, and your subscribers miss you…”

Tyler doesn't seem moved. "I'm not leaving, Brock. Evan needs someone here with him," he bites back _'but not as much as I need him.'_

“I could stay with him?” Brock suggests.

Tyler pauses, shaking uncomfortably. "I'm not gonna leave him," he doesn't give much more than that, not wanting to admit how much Evan comforted him in a way no one else could.

Sighing and growing exasperated with him, Brock was fed up of talking in circles and finally let the subject drop. “Has your video finished uploading?” he asks, changing the topic to something a little less heavy.

Tyler pauses, looking over and grabbing his phone. "Yeah," he mumbles, skimming through the comments. "Oh, Evan's gonna _love_  this," he laughs aloud as he goes through them.

Hearing Tyler genuinely laugh about something for the first time in a week brought a smile to his face, and Brock was glad to know that the good humoured Tyler he knew was still there under all of that depression and guilt. “What is it?” he asks curiously.

He pauses to read a comment. "Like this one, ' _omgggg tyler says he fucked up with someone he liked!! and he’s staying with evan while he’s in hospital?? coincidence???? I think not!!!! #tyler/evanconfirmed_ ', dude they think we're dating he's gonna be so pissed," he chuckles.

Brock laughed. “Yeah, he gets pretty annoyed when the guys joke about that stuff too. It’s kinda funny actually,” he says, relaxing back into his chair with a soft smile.

Tyler skims through, biting back a frown at another comment, rage slowly building. "Man some of the fucking fans are so dumb," he groans as he glares at another comment.

“Yeah, well you’ll always find some of those in YouTube comments,” Brock agrees with a curt nod. “What are they saying this time?”

Tyler shakes his head. "Nothing good. Calling Craig a whore and like… this one, ' _ugh don’t worry about that bitch anyway, they don’t deserve you anyway and you could do way better than them!! They were probably really shitty anyway so you’re better off without them anyway!! You’ll find someone much better than that slut, don’t beat yourself up about it :) <3_', he's not the problem. I am," he sighs, putting his phone down.

“You’re not a problem, Tyler. That whole thing was just one big misunderstanding. I’m sure once you get the opportunity to explain everything to Craig properly, then he’ll come around,” Brock smiles at him. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

He narrows his eyes at Brock's cheery disposition. "Maybe, but I'm not exactly counting on it," he mumbles.

“That’s fine, but don’t give up hope either, especially since that’s all we have right now,” Brock says, glancing down at Evan’s unconscious form again.

Tyler doesn't say anything, going back to his phone and skimming through the comments. It proved to be a good way to waste time, considering there wasn't much else to do.

At the end of the day, Brock gathered up his things and bid goodbye to Tyler, leaving him alone with Evan while he went back home to edit a video and get some sleep. He tried again to get him to leave before he went, but Tyler refused.

As soon as Brock left, Tyler sighs and looks up from his phone. "He's so in love with you it's kinda cute," he mumbles almost mockingly, recalling Evan saying those words. "Fuck. I miss you, Ev. Really. I can't..I don't know what to do, Evan. I really need your help," he whimpers. "It's not the same, just… fuck. I keep thinking about your body in that damned car, I can't get it out of my head," he's shaking at this point, grip tightening on Evan's hand. He pauses intermittently, as though waiting for Evan to respond. "Fuck. I can't… I don't wanna do this without you. You're my best friend, Evan, you're the only thing I have left. I'm not letting anything hurt you," he sighs, shifting to look at Evan's face as he sets his hands on either side of Evan's face. "I'm gonna protect you if it's the last thing I do," he mumbles softly, resting his forehead against Evan's.

* * *

 

The next day, Brock had barely made it out of the room before one of the nurses stopped him, looking rushed and more worried than she probably should be. "Hey. I really wanna talk to you about your friend in there," she begins, looking at the door to Evan's room intermittently.

“Why? Is there something wrong with Evan?!” Brock exclaims, his heart dropping with worry. Was he not going to wake up?!

The nurse shakes her head, "No, no. Evan isn't the problem. It's Tyler. He hasn't left that room in a week, he won't let us feed him and third shift keeps reporting that he doesn't sleep... he doesn't even care about his own injuries..." She pauses, looking around to see if anyone is listening then whispers "He just sits there and... talks," she looks truly concerned. "We legally can't help him unless he's admitted, and even if he was he's still allowed to decline stuff. Can you help him? As a friend? Maybe there's a reason, something he's still torn up about. Someone he likes that might be able to convince him?" she asks hopefully.

Whilst Brock felt relieved that Evan was okay, now he was worried about Tyler. He had been concerned about him ever since he refused to go home, and he had the sinking feeling he wasn’t taking care of himself, and the nurse only confirmed his suspicions. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him, but I’ve been trying to get him to come home for a while now so I don’t know if he’ll listen to me,” he frowns.

The nurse pauses, looking back at the door. "Maybe he'd listen to someone that he was as close to as he is with Evan," she prompts, looking between him and the door.

Brock’s thoughts drift to Craig, but he knows they’re not on speaking terms right now, and while there was the chance that Tyler _might_  listen to him, he wasn’t sure how he was ever going to convince Craig to talk to him. “Maybe. I’ll figure something out,” he says, and gives her a curt nod and a polite smile. “Thank you for your concern.”

She sets a hand on his shoulder. "Brock," she stops him. "People will do a lot for someone they care about. They'll up and forget just about anything," she tells him, then walks away when a call light goes off.

Brock watches her go, a little confused about her words, and he thinks about them the entire way home, and they’re still on his mind when he sits down at his computer to edit. So much so that he couldn’t concentrate on his editing, and ended up giving up on it completely and opened Skype instead. He runs through his contact list, trying to find the name of someone who Tyler might listen to, but knew it was of no use. Aside from Evan himself, the only other person who’s opinion mattered to him was Craig’s, but he didn’t know how to go about contacting him without asking Tyler for his number which he was sure would not go well.

Just as he was about to give up, he noticed that Nogla had messaged him about something or other, and decided that it might be worth talking to him about all of this. He ignored his invitation to play with him, and instead began typing up his concerns.

_Brock: I talked to a nurse today, she’s really worried about Tyler…_

_Nogla: what do you mean, worried about Tyler? Isn't she supposed to take care of Evan? He seemed… kinda dead, in that video._

_Brock: yeah, he doesn’t look much better irl either… nurse says Tyler hasn’t been eating or sleeping, and that he apparently talks to himself when I’m not around…_

_Nogla: he isn't exactly alone there. Evan is there too. maybe he's talking to Evan?_

_Brock: makes a whole lot more sense than him talking to himself at any rate… nurse asked me to try and talk him into going home, but I’ve been doing that for a solid week at least and I’m pretty sure he stopped listening to me days ago. She seems to think that getting someone he really cares about to talk to him would help, but I can only think of one person he might listen to and they’re not exactly on speaking terms right now..._

_Nogla: ask Tom, friend. I've been seeing them doing stuff, plus they're both working on that game so Tom's bound to have him on skype. I don't usually talk to him aside from game stuff._

_Brock: I’ll ask Tom for his contact info, but do you think Craig will talk to him? I mean, he hasn’t talked to him since they fell out as far as I know, why would he now?_

_Nogla: he's probably worried. All this shit that's going on and he has no info about Tyler. Just cause they broke up doesn't mean he doesn't care._

_Brock: true… it’s a worth a shot at least I guess… here’s hoping you’re right :/_

_Nogla: good luck man ^____^_  

Brock closed his chat with Nogla and opened one with Tom, relieved to see he was online when he needed him most.

_Brock: Hey, you know Craig right?_

_Syndicate: yeah, dude. Why?_

_Brock: Can you pass on his contact info to me? I need to talk to him about something important_

_Syndicate: normally I'd ask him first but he won't talk to me, so maybe you'll have more luck. Here dude._

_Brock: thanks. I’ll see what I can do_

Brock closes out of that Skype window and sends Craig a friend request along with a quick message, hoping he’d respond.

* * *

 

Craig was curled up in bed, listening to the voicemails Tyler had left him the week before for the upteenth time. He sounded so broken and hurt, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty for ignoring his plea for help. Tyler needed him and he brushed him off, and his heart was aching because of it. He was still hurt from what he had done to him and he wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet, but he still cared about him in spite of everything, and he couldn’t help but worry. He debated reaching out to him and asking if he was okay, but so much time had passed since they last spoke and he had ignored him for so long that Craig wasn’t sure if Tyler would even want to speak to him any more.

His thumb was hovering over Tyler’s name in his contact list when he received a message on Skype from a name he wasn’t familiar with.

_Moo Snuckel would like to add you on skype._

_Hey, you don’t know me, but I’m a friend of Evan and Tyler’s. Can I talk to you about something real quick?_

_[accept] [decline]_

Craig frowned as he stared at the message, curious as to what he could possibly want from him, and his stomach churned with unease. He took a deep shaky breath, unsure as to whether or not he wanted to speak to him, but his heart won out against his mind, and he accepted his request.

_Craig: what’s up?_

_Brock: I know you probably don’t want to talk about him to anyone, much less a complete stranger, but I wouldn’t have come to you if I knew of anyone else that could help. Tyler hasn’t been doing too well lately (not that he tells US that…) and we’re starting to worry about him. He hasn’t been eating or sleeping, and we’re hoping that maybe you could talk some sense into him_

Craig bit his lip at that, and couldn’t help but blame himself for Tyler’s distress. Maybe if he hadn’t ignored his phone call last week, then Tyler would be doing better, although he wasn’t sure if him answering his phone would have changed anything at all. He couldn’t have had that much pull over him then, and doubted that anything he could say would influence him now that they had broken up.

_Craig: We don’t talk any more though..._

_Brock: I know that, but he still cares about you immensely and talks about you all the time. He’ll listen to you_

_Craig: I don’t know if I agree with any of that..._

_Brock: Well you should, because it’s the truth. I’m not going to interfere in your relationship any, but I promise you that he still cares about you and values your opinion more than anything, even if it doesn’t feel like that to you. He has yet to leave Evan’s side and it’s been at least a week, and no matter how much I keep insisting that he needs to go home and take care of himself, he refuses. He won’t listen to me, but I’m hoping that maybe he’ll listen to you_

His heart twisted in his chest, and he had to wonder if Brock had any idea as to what happened between them. Tyler couldn’t still care about him, as Craig doubted that he had _ever_ cared about him to begin with. But then there was the distressed voicemails where he came to him begging for help, the recent text calling him cute, and the update video he watched against his better judgement that sent him into a sobbing mess. All of those had him second guessing everything he had previously thought about him, and part of him was beginning to wonder if maybe he was wrong.

_Brock: I’ve seen Tyler after break ups before, and he’s never taken one this bad. He misses you terribly, and honestly at this point, I think even seeing your face would be enough to encourage him to take care of himself. He needs to know that there’s still something in his life worth fighting for. Please talk to him. I’m so worried about him, and I don’t know what else to do. He’s slowly withering away and I’m worried what state I’ll find him in when I visit Evan next time_

Next time. Those two words were all it took to cause a flood of memories to hit him like a punch to the gut. He was reminded of every time Tyler’s lips ghosted over his skin and he’d promise to kiss him the next time they meet, and every time he kept true to his word. No matter how convinced he was that their entire relationship was a lie, the way he smiled at him always seemed so genuine, and he remembered the way his heart skipped a beat every time he caught Tyler gazing at him lovingly and longingly when he thought Craig wouldn’t notice.

Part of him was still sure that he couldn’t trust Tyler, that he was _wrong_  to ever trust Tyler, and that everything Tyler said and did with him was just him playing around with his heart so he could win a bet. But he had spent so much time lately listening to his voicemails and watching his update video on repeat, and hearing him sincerely apologise over and over again, that he was beginning to doubt everything. Part of him was beginning to wonder if Tyler deserved a second chance.

_Craig: ...I’ll think about it_

_Brock: Thank you. He really needs this, please help him_

With that, Craig signed out, set his phone aside, and lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was swimming with mixed emotions and he wasn’t sure how to feel any more. Both Brock and Tyler were so insistent that Tyler still cared for him, but he didn’t know whether or not he could believe them.

Whatever the case, Craig still cared about Tyler’s wellbeing, and broken heart or no broken heart, he still needed him to be healthy and safe, and if marching down to the hospital and talking to him face to face was the only thing that was going to convince him to take care of himself, then that’s exactly what he was going to do.

Flinging the covers off of him, Craig climbed out of bed and quickly got dressed. As he rifled through his wardrobe for something to wear, he stumbled across the jacket Tyler had gave him (though it had since lost the distinct smell of Tyler’s cologne and just smelled like him nowadays, on account of him wearing it so much this past week), and even though the mere sight of it had sent a pang throughout his chest, he still grabbed it and decided to bring it with him.

It takes him just under half an hour to ask Brock for directions, make his way to the hospital and find himself outside Evan’s hospital room, jacket slung over his arm. He shifts on the spot, incredibly nervous to see Tyler again and concerned about what state he was about to find him in, but before he loses his courage and changes his mind, he knocks on the door.

He can hear Tyler grumble "What the fuck, Brock," for several different reasons under his breath, but a creak resounds as he gets off Evan's bed and walks over, opening the door and freezing on the spot. "Craig," his entire demeanor shifts, shoulders slumping as he steps aside. "D- do you wanna come in?" he asks, and when he steps aside to reveal Evan, it's no wonder Craig has been called here.

Evan makes Tyler look like he's dead, and Evan is the one in hospital. Tyler is skinnier than ever and pale, _too_  pale. The bags under his eyes bring into question if he's slept _at all_  and he looks as though the only thing keeping him up is his sheer stubbornness. He walks over to stand beside Evan, and the closer he gets the more stark the comparison becomes.

Swallowing hard, Craig walks in when he’s invited to, and he watches Tyler closely, and based on his appearance alone, he was beginning to understand why Brock was so worried about him. “How are you doing?” he asks softly and stands at the end of Evan’s bed.

Tyler sighs as he collapses into the chair beside Evan, clearly deciding for once this week to be honest. "Fuckin' awful. I can't sleep, I keep having dreams about the crash, about Evan. Like it's my fault, but I know that so what the fuck does that tell me?" He rubs his face, but the life seems drained out of him.

“Don’t blame yourself, Tyler,” Craig says softly, and is half tempted to walk over there and lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but remains where he’s standing instead. “Sometimes this shit just happens and it isn’t anybody’s fault.”

Tyler shakes his head, glancing up and the look in his eyes screams 'I've done this, I've put my best friend here'. "If I hadn't _fucking_  touched him, if I could keep my _goddamn_  hands to myself he'd be fine!"  He rakes his hands through his hair, gripping tightly as though that would keep him together.

Nobody had told him that Tyler was feeling this guilty about the accident, and Craig wasn’t at all prepared for this. Brock was convinced he could help him, but now Craig wasn’t so sure. He sighed. “Well… maybe that’s true, but I wasn’t there so I don’t know… but what’s done is done, and you can’t change anything, so there’s no point in thinking about what might have happened if you did things differently. What’s important is that he’s still alive,” he says, eyes drifting from Tyler to Evan.

Tyler pauses, looking up at him and shifting. "Why are you here?" he asks, tempted to get up but unable to find the strength to.

Craig has a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t like the truth, but seeing no sense in lying to him, he answered him honestly anyway. “Your friend is really worried about you, and he asked me to come check up on you,” he tells him, and suddenly remembers about the jacket in his arms, and he hands it to him. “I also thought you might want this back since… well, you know.”

Tyler walks over, gently taking the jacket and carelessly tossing it on Evan's bed. "No, that's not what I meant," he mumbles softly, not bothering to step away. "I meant, why'd you come? You could have just as easily ignored him, like you've been ignoring me," he points out, resting one hand on Craig's shoulder.

Wincing at the comment, Craig refused to look at him and did his best to ignore the fact that he was touching him, in spite of him being all too aware of the hand on his shoulder. “Maybe… Maybe I was a little worried too and wanted to make sure you were okay…” he admits, and then quickly adds “And you’re obviously not. I mean, no offense but you look like _shit_. If Brock hadn’t told me that you’ve never left, then I could probably figure it out myself just from looking at you.”

Tyler takes a moment to look at him,"I… without you, my entire life is laying in that bed, so I couldn't exactly risk leaving him and me falling apart all over again," he shrugs, looking back at Evan. "So I stayed, where I knew I'd be better off." His eyes linger on Evan for a moment before he looks back at Craig. "But fuck, is it so good to see you again," he sounds genuinely relieved as he pulls Craig into a tight hug, burying his face in Craig's hair to hide his pained expression from his rib stinging with pain from the sudden pressure applied to it.

Craig slowly and hesitantly hugs him back, but more for Tyler’s sake than anything else (and maybe he missed being held like this, but one tight hug wasn’t enough to make him forgive him just yet). “I… I want to tell you that it’s good seeing you again too, but honestly, you look like you’re about to drop dead at any second, and I never wanted to see you like this,” he frowns, looking up at him concerned. “Maybe you should go home and try and get some rest in an actual comfortable bed, instead of wherever you’ve been sleeping here…”

Tyler sighs. "Okay," he agrees quietly, offering up no fight whatsoever. "For you," he adds.

Taken aback by how easy it was to convince him to go home, Craig blinked at him in surprise. “Uhh… okay, yeah, let’s… let’s get you home then,” he says and pulls away, and stands by the door to wait for him to gather up his things before they leave the room.

Tyler grabs his phone and charger, walking after Craig and after a while speaking, as though to himself. "You know, the funniest damn thing about that bet?" he mumbles, one eyebrow raised at him. "I fuckin' lost, like… fifteen minutes after I met you," he chucked faintly at the irony of it.

“...What?” he asks, and immediately stops walking, freezing on the spot to look up at him in shock. He couldn’t help but wonder if the reason he was bringing this up was to inform him that not only did he only date him because of a bet, but that it was a complete waste of his time too as he had lost long ago, but he bit back that thought, not wanting to start another argument and wanted to give him time to explain himself.

Tyler nods, still seeming relatively calm. "The bet was to buy you a drink and go out on a date with you. I just sorta… forgot. You were too cute, I liked you too much and whatever Evan said went right over my head," he shrugs, as though it were simple to him.

“Oh,” Craig says quietly as he pieces everything together in his mind, and starts walking towards the elevator again. “So… everything we did after that first date was because you wanted to, not because Evan made you…?” he asks, thinking aloud.

Tyler nods. "Of course it was," he replies, tapping the elevator button and leaning against the wall, watching Craig.

“And… And everything you’ve ever said to me… that was all… you meant all of that? And weren’t just spouting bullshit to win some stupid bet…?” he presses further, staring down at the floor, his heart twisting in his chest as he slowly processes that he might just have been wrong about him this whole time.

Tyler narrows his eyes at this. "Of course I did, who do you think I am? I lied about that dumb bet to protect you. I said you'd take it the wrong way, and I was right," he points out, folding his arms over his chest.

“Of course I took that the wrong way! How else was I supposed to take it?!” Craig suddenly snaps at him, surprising even himself with his sudden burst of anger. “I fucking find out that the guy I’d fallen head over heels for had _only_  talked to me because he was basically _dared_  to. Do you know how often that fucking shit has happened to me?! I was _constantly_  asked out as a joke at school, or because somebody dared someone, or because somebody bet them money that they wouldn’t have the balls to ask out the class dork, like nobody has ever showed genuine interest in me before, and then I _finally_  find someone that _might just like me_ , and it turns out he was no better than those other fucking assholes!” he exclaims just as the elevator dings and he storms inside and all but hides in the corner. “I thought you were different, but you turned out to be just like them.”

Tyler is quick to approach him, taking Craig's face in his hands. "Listen to me you fuckin' idiot," he says softly, but it's obvious his insults hold no real weight. "I only approached you on the dare. I wouldn't have seen you otherwise. I would've focused on Evan, we would've drank ourselves stupid and forgotten it all. You were a ghost, no one would've seen you," his thumb gently brushes Craig's cheek.

“Of course you didn’t see me… nobody ever sees me… I’m just that guy that’s just _there_ , that nobody acknowledges until they have to, or until I start talking and even then it’s just because I’m that fucking loud that it’s hard not to,” he takes a deep shaky breath and looks at everything but Tyler’s face. “And then you came up to me, and started flirting with me, and I thought you were different, and stupidly thought you talked to me because you wanted to… but nope, you only did it because Evan made you…”

Tyler bites his lip, holding back a groan and the irresistible urge to kiss him. "You were not invisible, Evan saw you. And Craig, you know full well that everything I said to you was true. You're the cutest thing I've ever seen," his voice is quiet as he rests his forehead against Craig's.

Not knowing what to say, Craig didn’t say anything at all and let his words sink in. Part of him wanted to push him away, as he’d spent the past week trying to get over him, and now Tyler was invading his personal space again and he knew this could end badly for him if he let him, but he couldn’t bring himself to shove him away, and instead found himself tightly gripping onto Tyler’s shirt at his waist and tugging him closer.

Tyler leans closer, until their lips are brushing and quietly mumbles "I love you, I've always loved you more than anything in the world and nothing can change that," as though a split second later and Craig would forget.

“Tyler…” Craig mumbles against his lips, and he’s so _fucking tempted_  to close that gap between them, and just about manages to hold himself back. “I… I want to say the same thing to you but… but I’m so fucking scared that you’ll hurt me again…”

Tyler lets his thumb brush over Craig's lips. "Just… God, the last thing I want to do is hurt you," he mumbles, biting his lip. "Fuck, can… can I kiss you?" he asks hesitantly, eyes drifting up to meet Craig's.

“There’s… there’s a lot of things that I need to reconsider, and I think I might need some time to think about this before rushing into something with you again…” he says, and forces himself to gently push Tyler away. He pulls himself out of his embrace, and walks over to the other side of the elevator and finally hits the button that would take them to the ground floor. “I’m sorry…”

Tyler shakes his head, leaning against the wall. "Jesus fuck, I almost made out with you in a fuckin' hospital elevator," he sighs aloud, raking one hand through his hair.

“It could’ve been worse… there could’ve been other people in here…” Craig jokes, smiling softly at him.

Tyler cracks a grin at that. "Fuck that, let 'em watch. It's sexier that way," he winks at Craig, clearly joking.

“If that’s what you’re into. Personally, I think pushing me up against an elevator wall and making out with me _just because_  there was no one else around is much sexier, but maybe that’s just me,” he shrugs with an easy smile, and just as he finished speaking, the elevator dings and the doors slide open, and Craig leads the way into reception.

Tyler walks up behind him, lips brushing his ear. "Damn, just a second longer and I might've taken you up on that offer," he taunts, grinning.

“Well… there’s always next time?” he teases, and allows himself to lace his fingers with Tyler’s.

There's a short breath of Tyler's chuckle. "Next time," he echoes, ever so gently nibbling on Craig's earlobe as he squeezes his hand.

Craig’s heart swells, and he smiles to himself as he squeezes his hand back and leads him outside. “I forgot to call an Uber but we can probably find a taxi if you don’t want to wait for one to show up.”

Tyler's hand clenches around Craig's at the mention of a car, but otherwise just mumbles "I don't mind waiting with you," rather patiently and quietly.

“Whatever you want,” Craig replies and lightly bumps his shoulder, before pulling out his phone and opening the app to get them a ride home.

Tyler stays silent, taking the time to calm himself down at the idea of riding in a car, which he does by intermittently squeezing Craig's hand or brushing against him.

At first, Craig thinks nothing of his little touches and just waves it off as him being excited to be near him again, and returns a few of the light bumps and gentle squeezes. But once they had been waiting in silence for almost ten minutes, he begins to grow suspicious, and looks up at him, surprised to see the nervous look in his eye. “Are you okay…?” he asks, frowning at him in worry.

Tyler shakes his head, caught between staring at Craig and the ground. "Nah. 'M scared," he replies quietly, grip on Craig tightening.

“Scared? Of what?” he asks softly, his voice low.

Tyler looks over,"Crash. You getting hurt," his answer is simple, gentle and genuinely scared for Craig's safety, and his hand unconsciously brushes over his ribs, as though reminding himself.

Craig’s expression softens, and he shoots him a small smile. “We’ll be fine. Those crashes were just freak accidents, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be in another one of those any time soon,” he reassures him, giving his hand another tight squeeze.

Tyler relaxes slightly, seemingly comforted by his words. He still keeps a tight grip on Craig, however, as though he'll disappear at any moment.

Their Uber driver arrives shortly after, and Craig watches Tyler carefully as they pull to a stop just in front of them. “Come on,” he says in a gentle tone and lightly tugs him towards the car, Tyler following him silently, sticking close by him. Craig opens the door for and gestures for him to climb in first. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Tyler gets in, pulling his seatbelt on and watching Craig's every movement. He never says a word, just watches everything. Craig climbs into the backseat after him and shuts the door behind them, but before he sits down, he leans forward to whisper to the driver. “Hey, can you make sure to drive really slowly and carefully?” he requests, and the driver nods. Craig then settles down next to Tyler and puts on his seatbelt, shooting him an encouraging smile.

Tyler returns the smile, making sure to be in some way touching Craig pretty much the entire ride to his house. Craig makes idle conversation with their driver throughout their journey, but he keeps a tight grip on Tyler’s hand since he knows that he’s nervous, his thumb gently stroking the back of his hand. The tiny action seems to relax him, as he fidgets less during the ride. When they arrive at his house, he isn't exactly fast about getting out but he seems slightly relieved when they're out of the car.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Craig comments when they’ve arrived and allows Tyler to lead the way since he doesn’t entirely know where to go from here. Tyler sighs, rolling his eyes and fishing his keys out of his pocket as he walks through the yard to his house.

 

One hand on the door, he pauses to turn and look out at Craig. "Oh, watch out for Kino. He's been stuck here all week, and he probably misses me a lot," he warns, unlocking the door and stepping inside, holding it open for Craig and immediately slamming it shut behind him as a huge Dalmatian comes barreling down the hall at them.

Craig’s eyes widen at the sight of an overly excited puppy charging towards them, but Kino skips right past him and immediately jumps up on Tyler, pawing at his thighs, tail wagging excitedly behind him. “Yeah, I think he does miss you,” Craig says, smiling fondly at them.

Tyler's face lights up at the sight of Kino and he leans over to smother him in affection. "Hey there, bud!" he greets the dog excitedly, and goes so far as to pick the dog up before setting him down and letting him run laps around Tyler, tail whipping fiercely in excitement.

“He’s cute,” Craig tells him, watching them affectionately as he felt a fluttering feeling in his chest after seeing how much Tyler loved his puppy.

Tyler crouches down to pet Kino, only to immediately get covered in kisses. He stands back up after a few minutes, pulling his shirt off to reveal bruises covering the right side of his torso and walking to the kitchen. "Feel free to hang out, if you want," he offers, going to make himself food. "Kino's a fuckin' retard though, so watch out for him," he warns.

Craig bites his lip, and his eyes are drawn to the bruises covering him, and his heart drops and his stomach churns. “Nobody told me you got hurt…” he says softly and sadly, gaze fixed on his injured chest as he followed after him.

Tyler pauses, as though it hadn't occurred to him that he was hurt. "What? Oh, yeah. I broke a rib, nothing special," he shrugs it off, as though this wasn't the first time he'd had to push someone's worry away.

“‘Nothing special’? You broke a rib, Tyler! That’s kind of a big deal!” Craig exclaims, and he wants to reach out and touch him, but doesn’t out of fear of hurting him.

Tyler sighs, putting the Oreos on the counter as he walks over, grabbing Craig's hands and gingerly placing them on his chest. "I'm fine. They just need to heal, Craig," he reassures him, shoving his hands in his pockets and letting Craig run his hands over his chest.

“That doesn’t make me worry any less,” he mumbles, and lightly trails his fingers over the dark bruising, scared that if he put any amount of pressure on his skin then he’d hurt him. “Does it not hurt?”

Tyler watches him. "I don't even feel your hands. Craig, I'm not gonna break, put a little pressure," he encourages.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Craig tells him with a frown. “You broke a rib. I don’t want to poke at it and make things worse…”

He gently cups Craig's face, tilting his head up and looking him in the eyes. "If it hurts, I'll tell you. Look at me, Craig. I'm a big boy, I can handle it," he smiles faintly.

Nodding, Craig allows himself to ever so slightly apply a little more pressure to his touches, and gently and carefully runs his fingers along his ribs, watching Tyler’s face for a reaction to make sure he wasn’t in any pain. Tyler keeps a neutral expression, letting Craig explore his chest until he brushed a hand across Tyler's top right rib, and he jumps away with a tiny hiss of pain.

“Shit, Tyler, I’m sorry!” Craig exclaims and takes a step back, biting his lip in guilt. “I told you this was a bad idea!”

He sets one hand on the broken rib, taking a moment to regain his composure before stepping toward Craig, wrapping one arm around him. "It's fine. I probably should've let them take a better look at it," he admits.

“Well, you should ask them to take a better look at it when you’re back tomorrow,” Craig says sternly, adamant that he gets the treatment he needs.

Tyler gently presses a kiss to his forehead. "Alright," he mutters without hesitation, walking back over to dig out more food.

“In the mean time, maybe I should go home, and let you rest,” Craig thinks aloud, though if he was being completely honest, part of the reason he wanted to leave was because any amount of time he spent alone with a half naked Tyler could only end in one way, and even after all of his earlier comments about making out with him, he still wanted to sit down and think about everything Tyler had told him tonight before jumping into something with him, and he certainly didn’t want to make out with him or touch him when his ribs were so sensitive. It wouldn’t be fair to him if they kissed before he could figure out exactly how he felt.

Tyler is in the middle of rooting through the pantry when he stops, hands full of Oreos. "Not tonight. Not yet. I don't trust myself to sleep alone. Just lay with me, let me go to sleep and then you can do your thing, whatever that thing is," he shrugs, going back to digging for what would likely be unhealthy food.

His mind is screaming at him to say ‘no’, that he should stick to his guns and keep his distance until he’s absolutely sure that a relationship with Tyler is what he wants, but his heart couldn’t bare to leave him alone in his time of need. Not again. “Okay,” he agrees softly, and follows him into the kitchen. “If you think it’ll help.”

Tyler seems relieved at this, grabbing more food out of the pantry and kicking it shut with his foot, yelling at Kino that no he can't have any as he walks to the living room to relax on the couch, occasionally looking at Craig as though wondering if he'd join. He had no reason to worry however, as Craig followed after him without a second thought and plopped down next to him on the couch. “Is it good to be home?” Craig asks, making idle conversation.

Tyler sighs. "No. I keep worrying about Evan," he replies truthfully. "But it's nice to have you back," he replies, flicking the TV on and eating Oreos, frowning when the news started going over the crash again.

As soon as Craig realised what the news anchors were talking about, he snapped the remote out of Tyler’s hand and quickly changed the channel to one that was showing some terrible B movie instead. “You don’t need to watch that,” he mutters as a way of explanation, and sets the remote down on the couch between them.

Tyler seems to accept this, relaxing and eating Oreos until he was sick of them, at which point he got up and went to his bedroom. "I'd offer you something to change into, but I have this sinking feeling nothing would fit," he mutters as he changes into sweatpants, not at all bothered by the fact that Craig was there.

“Probably not, but I know I won’t be able to get comfortable in my jeans, which means lying next to you in just my boxers…” he trails off as he gets up off the couch and stands at his bedroom door, lightly biting his lip as his cheeks began to heat up at the thought.

Tyler seems unaffected by this, simply shrugging and replying "I won't tell if you won't," as he walks over to Craig, gently tugging him into the room and closing the door behind him.

Nodding, Craig kicks off his shoes and begins to undo his belt and drops it on a random spot on the floor. His hands stop on the button of his jeans, and he almost asks Tyler to turn around until he realises that that would be silly as he was going to see him in his underwear anyway and he quickly pulls them off. He takes off his jacket and drops it on the pile of clothes, but chooses to keep his t-shirt on. Unsure as to how this bed sharing was supposed to work, he nervously rubs his arm and waits for Tyler to take the lead.

Tyler walks over, collapsing in bed and dragging Craig down with him, pulling him against his chest. Craig landed on him unceremoniously, and he shifts and squirms around until he finds a comfortable position tucked into his left side, head on his shoulder and arm draped across his chest, careful to avoid the broken rib. “Is this okay? Are you comfortable?” he asks quietly, a little worried that he could potentially be preventing him from getting some much needed sleep. Tyler hums in affirmation, wrapping his arms around Craig's waist and falling asleep in seconds.

Craig half considers getting up and leaving Tyler to rest, but he’s so warm and comfortable cuddled up to next to him that he couldn’t bring himself to, even if he wanted to. He thinks back on everything that happened over the past few hours, from the things Brock had told him over Skype to everything Tyler had said at the hospital, and it couldn’t be clearer to him as to how wrong he was. He had spent the past week convincing himself that Tyler had never cared about him, when that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. He had completely misunderstood the entire situation, and if he had just given Tyler the chance to explain his side of the story all that time ago, then he could’ve saved himself a lot of heartbreak.

This whole time, Tyler was just as in love with him as he was with him, and now that he was lying next to him in bed, thinking back to how easy it was to joke around with him as they left that elevator in the hospital, he had to wonder how he ever thought otherwise.

Smiling to himself, Craig shuffled that little bit closer to him and closed his eyes, allowing the sounds of Tyler’s even breathing to lull him to sleep.

* * *

 

Tyler wakes up earlier, as he always does, and tries to rub the sleep out of his face as he detaches Craig from his chest and heads to the kitchen to cook the few things he knew how- pancakes and bacon.

Craig wakes up to the delicious scent of breakfast wafting in from the kitchen, and it takes him a moment to remember where he was. The bed smells strongly of Tyler, and he quickly decides that he likes that smell a whole lot more and wraps himself in his blankets, and before he knew what was happening, he easily drifts off to sleep again.

Once Tyler finishes baking, he heads back to his bedroom and walks to Craig's side of the bed, gingerly climbing on and straddling him, pressing gentle kisses up and down his neck. Craig hums in contentment as Tyler’s affection slowly wakes him back up, and he smiles sleepily to himself. “Good morning to you too…” he greets him, his voice tired.

Tyler slowly grinds their hips together. "I made pancakes," he hums against Craig's neck.

Craig gasps at the unexpected friction, and he was suddenly wide awake. “Well… I’d love to eat them, but some horny asshole would rather nibble at my neck, and I can’t get up…” he says and lightly places his hands on Tyler’s hips.

Tyler rolls his eyes at this, grinding their hips together again. "If you're going to complain like that, maybe I'll fuck you raw and let you scream into the pillow, how's that for breakfast?" he asks.

Craig whimpers at his touch, hands unconsciously tightening their grip on him. “Jesus Christ Tyler…” he mutters and finally looks up at him. “I’ve barely been back a day and you haven’t even kissed me yet, and you’re already trying to fuck me?” he asks, amused.

Tyler scoffs. "No, I'm offering. And it really sounds like you need me more than you'll admit," he hums as he grinds their hips together to prove his point.

Craig gasps again and arcs his back into him, and pouts when he realises Tyler was right. “Shut up,” he mutters, cheeks aflame. “Can you get off me now so we can have pancakes? I’m starving.” Tyler smiles at him, gently kissing his cheek as he shifts off of him.

He immediately breaks into a grin. "Ya know, Craig, not many people get to say they woke up to their boyfriend dry humping them over pancakes in their boxers," he points out, eyes drifting down to Craig's lack of pants.

Once Tyler had climbed off of him, Craig sits up and stretches his arms above his head and stretched out his back. “Who said we were boyfriends?”

Tyler falls silent, realizing he's totally right. "Just… eat the fuckin' pancakes so we can get back to see Evan," he grumbles, leaving the room.

Craig watches him leave with a frown, and it occurs to him that maybe that was the wrong thing to joke about. Cursing himself for his stupidity, he hastily climbs out of bed and quickly gets dressed before following him into the kitchen. He slowly makes his way over to him, nervously rubbing his arm. “...I thought about it a lot after you fell asleep last night and… I might be interested in being your boyfriend again if you’d take me back?” he admits, looking away from him. “I mean, you really hurt me a lot, but… I missed you. I missed _this_ , and… I want to have you around again…”

Tyler doesn't once look at him, and when he finishes talking he loudly drops the plate of food he had in hand onto the counter, walking over and stopping right in front of Craig. He stays silent for a long time, as though debating his words. Eventually, he grabs Craig's chin and tilts his head up, gently kissing him.

Craig melts into the kiss almost immediately and he snakes his arms around his neck, pulling him down to his level. “Is that a yes~?” he mumbles against his lips, and couldn’t stop the smile from breaking across his face.

Tyler's hands rest on Craig's hips as he gently bites Craig's lip and tugs on it, pulling his hips closer. A low hum rumbles in the back of Craig’s throat as he presses their bodies flush together and tilts his head. Tyler nibbles on his neck, hands running up and down Craig's sides, and Craig throws his head back to give him better access to his neck. “Mhmm Tyler,” he hums, his hands sliding from around his neck to lightly grip at his shoulders.

Tyler suddenly gets an idea and firmly grips Craig's ass, humming pleasantly under his breath as he guides him back to his bedroom. "Told you I'd fuck you raw and let you scream into the pillow, didn't I?" he asks mischievously, nibbling Craig's neck as he lays them down on the bed.

“What makes you think you can make me scream?” Craig challenges him with a slight smirk and a bite of his lip, silently hoping that Tyler would prove himself to be right.

Tyler raises an eyebrow, grinding his hips against Craig's and toying with the zipper. "Oh, trust me, I'll find a way," he smirks.

Craig lets out a low whine, and unconsciously pushes his hips up against his. “I’d like to see you try,” he presses him further, and starts kissing at Tyler’s jawline.

Tyler smiles at him, gently tugging the zipper down and letting his hands brush against the thin fabric that separated his hands and Craig's dick. Just as his hands do that, however, his hips are quick to slam into Craig's, and Craig lets out a strangled moan, before kissing his way down Tyler’s neck, teeth scraping against his skin.

Tyler's breathing turns into quiet, ragged moans as he slides one hand into Craig's underwear, gently stroking him, causing Craig to moan against his neck, and squirm beneath his touch. “Oh my God Tyler…” he breathes, fingers pressing hard into his shoulders. Tyler grinds their hips together again, stripping Craig of his pants, and Craig helps him out by lifting up his hips and sliding a thumb into his waistband so he could tug them off. Once they’re gone, he pushes Tyler away so he could quickly tug off his shirt, and then immediately pulls him back in for a kiss.

Tyler is quick to slide his tongue against Craig's lips, one hand running over his chest and gently rubbing his dick. Craig tilts his head and opens his mouth, and slides his tongue against Tyler’s, his hands lightly trailing down his back.

Tyler pulls away suddenly, lips lingering beside Craig's ear as he moans quietly and grinds their hips together, hand gently stroking Craig's dick before he pulls away and says "Right, we should get going. I don't like leaving Evan alone for so long," but clearly did it solely to fuck with Craig.

Too lost in his own lust, it didn’t occur to Craig at all that Tyler was just messing around with him. “Are you fucking shitting me, Tyler?!” Craig hisses, squirming on Tyler’s sheets, clearly frustrated that he wasn’t going to finish what he started. “You’re just going to leave me like this?!”

Tyler pauses, frowning as he thinks. "Way I see it, you've got two options here, my love. You can finish yourself off, or risk going with me to the hospital, and I'll give you a blowjob there," he offers, arms folded across his bare chest.

“I’ll give _you_  a blowjob right now if you just fucking fuck me,” Craig whines needily, and wraps his hand around his own dick, desperate for _some_  sort of touch, but his own hand only paled in comparison to Tyler’s.

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Mini, that's half the fun," he groans, stepping back to lean against the dresser behind him and partly to show off his muscles.

Craig groans in annoyance and begins stroking himself, and the fact that Tyler was watching him only turned him on _more_. “ _Tyler_ ,” he whines. “ _Tyler please._ ”

Tyler bites his lip, shoving off the dresser and walking closer, but he doesn't touch Craig. "What?" he asks, one eyebrow raised, as though he’s unsure of what Craig wanted from him.

“Tyler, touch me,” he groans, looking up at him with a desperate glint in his eye. “Please don’t leave me like this. _Tyler, touch me,_ ” he repeats, this time much more demanding.

He walks around the side of the bed, resting one hand on Craig's knee and slowly traveling up his thigh, stopping right at the base of Craig's dick. "What, like this?" He asks innocently, drinking in Craig's every move.

His skin tingled beneath his touch, and he raised his hips expectantly. “You know exactly what I fucking mean, you _dickhead,_ ” he hisses, hand gripping Tyler’s wrist and moving his hand onto his dick for him.

Tyler hums quietly to himself. "Someone's rather upset," he muses, gently stroking Craig once and suddenly leaning over and deepthroating him.

Craig was just about to respond to him but all thought left his head the second he felt Tyler’s lips on his dick, and he moaned loudly instead. He just about managed to stop himself from bucking his hips in surprise, not wanting to choke him, and weaved a hand through his hair.

Tyler doesn't stop, his tongue tracing intricate patterns over the length of Craig's dick as he watches Craig silently out of the corner of his eye, who was gasping and humming at every little lick as waves of pleasure shot through him. “Fuck, Tyler…” he moans, his voice catching in his throat. Tyler continues to deepthroat Craig, tongue sweeping over his dick with tiny licks and circles traced into his shaft.

“Tyler I’m close,” Craig whines out as a warning, hands tightening their grip in his hair.

Tyler hums, letting his tongue stroke the head of Craig's dick, then suddenly deepthroating him. Unable to hold himself back any longer, Craig cums into Tyler’s mouth and lets out a loud, long moan, back arcing up off the bed. Tyler swallows, gets off the bed and sets one hand on Craig's cheek.

"Fuck," he mumbles softly, seemingly at a loss for words. Craig merely hums, clearly satisfied, and hooks an arm around Tyler’s neck and pulls him down into a hug, wanting to cuddle him a little bit.

Tyler is quick to nuzzle his face against Craig's neck and lays next to him for awhile before mumbling against his skin, "I have to go visit Ev, do you wanna come or stay here and eat all my food?" he asks, not at all tempted to move.

“Second one. I still want those pancakes,” Craig mumbles, but then a thought strikes him and he looks at him concerned. “Will you be okay getting to the hospital on your own?” he asks, remembering how nervous about cars he was the night before.

Tyler nods, getting up and walking over to get some clothes. "If I get too bad I can just think of you lying on that bed whining for me to touch you," he mumbles, but no tone in his voice suggests he's teasing.

“Please never do that to me again. I honestly thought you were going to leave me,” Craig admits with a small frown, propping himself up on his elbows.

Tyler bites his lip as he pulls a shirt on, then changes out of his sweatpants into some real pants. "Maybe I might. It's kinda sexy," he muses, winking at Craig and grabbing his phone on his way out.

The drive to the hospital was nerve wracking at best, and once he got there he was sure the nurses on Evan's floor almost looked disappointed, in a way. But he just shook it off, let himself in and took up his usual position- sitting on the chair, skimming through Twitter on his phone in the seat beside Evan. Which didn't last very long, as it took him about two seconds before he felt the sudden urge to touch him. So, Tyler got up and abandoned his phone in favor of lying in the bed, his head resting on Evan's chest.

He'd only been lying there a few minutes before he started talking, not that he was aware of it. It had grown into a sort of word vomit around Evan, where he'd just _say things_. It sort of creeped him out, but it wasn't like Evan could hear him. "Hey, guess what?" he asks, not waiting for the response he was sure he wouldn't get. "I made up with Craig, like you wanted me to," he mumbles, feeling a deep ache in his chest when he's reminded of Evan once again.

He sighs, burying his face into Evan's chest as though somehow it would help. "It's not the same, not without you. Brock still comes by, sure, and Craig is here. But it's like there's a huge gap, a giant silence that's meant to be filled by someone, and God damn it Evan, I need you," he wasn't sure why, but when he ranted to Evan he usually ended pouring his heart and soul into it, as there was no judgement from an unconscious guy.

He wasn't sure when he started shaking, but at this point that was the least of his worries. "Fuck, why'd we have to go? I can't... I can't do this, Evan, I can't handle it. You were everything to me, man. Just… fuck, just wake up. Please," he can feel his hand clench tightly to Evan's clothes. "Don't... Nogla and Lui don't come around anymore, and I'm pretty sure it's fucking cause of me, cause I can't do this without you, you asshole," he mumbles, hiding his face in Evan's chest. "I... Evan, please," he can hear the whimper in his voice, but it's what his heart has been screaming all week, so he just let it out. " _Wake up_."

Suddenly, he feels a hand lightly touch his back. “Hey-” Evan begins, only to immediately start choking on account of his dry throat.

Tyler jumps high enough you'd have thought Evan had stabbed him, but when he realizes it's Evan he grabs him a glass of water. "Holy shit, dude, you scared the fuck outta me," he rubs his face and groans.

Evan takes the glass from him and takes a huge gulp, not realising how thirsty he was until that moment. “You’re not happy to see me?” he teases, his voice still sounding scratchy so he took another sip.

Tyler rolls his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about, happy to see you? I haven't left this hospital all week, dumbass, you're _all_  I've seen," he retorts, his sarcasm barely covering the serious tone to his voice.

“...I’ve been out for a week?” Evan asks, brow furrowing in confusion. “That’s… a really long time,” he frowns. “What… what day is it?”

Tyler pauses. "Uh, Saturday, I think," he mumbles. "’Cause Alice works on Saturdays, and I definitely saw her earlier," he mutters under his breath.

Evan takes a moment to try and remember who they know that’s named Alice, until it occurs to him that he doesn’t actually know anyone with that name, and he eyes Tyler curiously. “You know the nurses names?” he asks, piecing the information together, and eyes widening when it finally clicks. “Have you really been here all week?!”

Tyler winces slightly. "Pretty much, yeah. The second they let me see you, I just..." He shrugs, as though to ask what Evan had expected from him.

“You just _what_? Didn’t leave?” Evan chastised him with a frown. “Dude that’s… really not healthy.”

He rolls his eyes at that. "God, you sound like Brock. Every day, come in here with the same fuckin' 'you should go home Tyler, your dog misses you. You haven't eaten a full meal in four days, do you even sleep? Those bags under your eyes take up half your face'," Tyler mocks, leaning back in his chair.

“Don’t make fun of Brock, he was just worried about you, and rightly so if all of that is true,” Evan says, looking Tyler up and down. “You need to take care of yourself, man.”

Tyler sighs. "It's _not_  true, dude. I haven't eaten in _six_  and a half days," he pauses, then frowns. "Wait, no, six," he mumbles, having forgotten last night. "And I slept _once_  this week," he adds, glaring at Evan as though he'd just proved him wrong.

Evan stares at him in disbelief for a moment, before rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “Fucking hell, Tyler, how are you still alive?” he asks with a frown, eyeing him concerned. “I mean, I’m flattered and all that you were so worried about me, but you could’ve starved yourself into an early grave…”

Tyler sighs, pulling out his phone. "Evan, there's… something you're not understanding," he says as he pulls up a link to a news video, handing over his phone so Evan could see the video footage of the crash.

“What’s this?” he asks curiously and hits play, but it isn’t until he sees his car drive through a red light that he realises what he’s watching.

The second car slamming into his still catches him off guard even though he was expecting it, and he honestly doesn’t remember the car rolling but there was no mistaking that that’s what happened. He watches with a heavy heart as Tyler climbs out of the car in a panic, and then slowly pulls his own limp body out of the driver’s seat, and his heart breaks at the disheartened expression on Tyler’s face as he holds him in the middle of the intersection.

“Why are you showing me this?” he asks softly, handing the phone back to Tyler before the video even ended.

Tyler takes his phone, switching to Evan's YouTube channel. "You have no idea what that did to me, Ev. I spent a fucking week sitting here blaming myself, thinking I needed to stay with you, to make sure you were okay because I fucking lost everything. Both you and Craig were gone, and it fucking hit me hard," he explains briefly, pulling up his most recent video and showing Evan.

Even though the video was on his channel, it wasn’t one he remembered uploading, and it was immediately obvious as to why when Tyler appeared on screen with Brock hovering around on his phone in the background. _“Hey, I know I'm not Vanoss and I know you're worried but he's kinda… unconscious, and he'll upload once he's out of the hospital. I’m sure most of you have seen the videos of what happened to him- us by now, but if you haven’t then just google it or something,”_  Tyler’s voice sounds tired and exhausted, and he looks worse than he sounds. His face is as pale as a ghost and he had thick bags under his eyes, and he looked like a zombie compared to Brock who, while seeming just as stressed, had taken the time to look after himself and get some rest, unlike Tyler who looked as if he hadn’t seen a pillow for a very long time.

“I didn’t realise I worried you this much…” Evan admits softly, and hands back his phone once again. “You really didn’t need to stay here the whole time, Tyler. I would’ve been okay.”

Tyler smiles fondly. "You mean the world to me, Ev," is all he says, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple. "I gotta get outta here, I got shit waiting at home, but call Brock if you have any more questions cause I'm pretty sure he'll be able to answer them," he says, texting Craig quickly and heading for the door.

“You stayed by my side for a whole week and now that I’m awake, you want to leave me?” Evan teases lightly with an affectionate smile, and even though he wanted to talk to Tyler a little more, he was still glad that he was finally going home to start taking care of himself.

Tyler rolls his eyes, walking over and setting one hand on Evan's foot as he pulls his phone out and calls Brock. "Hey, how's it goin' little buddy?" He asks when Brock picks up, cheery disposition seeming almost unnatural by now.

“You’re in a good mood this morning,” Brock comments, a smile evident in his voice. “I was hoping you’d be. That nurse had me worried sick about you…”

Tyler's eyes narrow. "Yeah, about that. I know what you did last night, Brock. We need to talk about it," his tone changes drastically from its cheery one, taking on a much more upset tone. "Can you come down to the hospital? Like, _now_?"

There’s a moment of silence on the line, and Evan watches Tyler confused and curious as to what happened the night before. “...I’m on my way right now,” Brock says hesitantly. “I was just at your house to feed your dog as usual, so I’m making my way there right now… Did I do something wrong? I ran into your boyfriend when I was feeding Kino, and he seemed to think you were doing alright…”

Tyler sighs, chewing his lip hesitantly before setting one hand on the bed frame and suddenly yelling,"Get the _fuck_  over here, now!" In a fiercely upset tone and hanging up. "That should get him here," he mutters, putting his phone away.

“What the hell happened between you two?” Evan asked, feeling a mixture of confusion and concern.

Tyler folds his arms over his chest, keeping up the impression that he was furious with Brock. "Nothing. You'll see," he steps away from the bed.

“At least tell me what he did last night…?” Evan asks with a frown.

Tyler glances over, eyes narrowed at him but there was no malice present. "Don't worry about it," he snaps, looking back at the door. That response only made Evan worry about it more, but he let the subject drop.

As they waited for Brock to come, Tyler’s phone buzzed with a text from Craig responding to the one he sent him earlier, mentioning the fact that Brock had dropped by and sternly reminding him to get his rib checked out.

Tyler sighs when he checks it, biting his lip as he responded _'of course babe_ '. He glances at Evan for a moment. "Don't go anywhere," he jokingly warns as he steps out of the room, frowning when he runs smack into Brock. "You," he places one finger on his chest.

Brock smiles sheepishly at him. “Hey? It’s nice to see you too?” he says, giggling nervously.

Tyler tightly grips his collar. "I figured I'd repay you for what you _did_ ," he growls, opening the door and stepping inside.

Gulping, Brock hesitantly follows him into the room, but he doesn’t get much farther than the door before he freezes in place.

“Back so soon?” Evan asks Tyler in a teasing tone, but his gaze is quick to travel to Brock behind him and his face lights up. “Oh hey! I was wondering when you would show up!” he says, bright easy grin on his face, but Brock looks up at Tyler instead, too stunned to speak.

Tyler smiles at him. "I have to go talk to a doctor, I kinda promised someone something," he says, setting one hand on Brock's shoulder and lowering his voice so Evan wouldn't hear him. "Now I'm gonna leave you alone with your boyfriend, so keep it PG. You have no idea what I did to Craig when I got him alone," he mutters scandalously, chuckling to himself and leaving the room.

Brock’s face heats up at the insinuation that he and Evan were dating, but he laughs a little and shakes his head. “I didn’t need to know that,” he says and walks further into the room to talk to Evan.

“What was that about?” Evan asks, amused at how flustered Brock seemed to be after their brief whispered conversation, and at how he only got more flustered when asked about it.

“Don’t worry about it,” Brock waves it off and sits down in Tyler’s usual seat, happy and relieved to see it vacant for once. “He was just telling me that he fucked his boyfriend last night, as if I needed to know that,” he says, trying his hardest to shake the mental images out of his head.

“Are they back together?” Evan asks excitedly, his face lighting up with a bright grin, and it warmed Brock’s heart to see just how much he cared about Tyler and his relationship with Craig (or maybe it warmed his heart to see him smile, it was hard to tell, but he couldn’t stop himself from smiling when Evan did).

“As of last night, yeah,” Brock confirms with a nod. “And thank God too. Like, I don’t know how much he’s told you about this past week, but he really wasn’t handling their break up well… or the fact you’ve been in a coma for so long either… Actually, he’s just been a mess in general,” Brock frowns. “He doesn’t even seem to care that he was injured too. Even the nurses were worried about him.”

“Yeah, he told me he was here all week,” Evan says, matching his concerned frown. “Did he really not go home at all?”

Brock shook his head. “Not until last night, as far as I’m aware. I’ve been trying to get him to go home ever since the crash, but he stopped listening to me a long time ago. I uh… I actually got so worried about him that I messaged Craig on Skype to come talk to him, even though they hadn’t spoken for a solid week before then. That’s what I thought he was so mad at me about, but I think he only said those things because he knew you were awake and he wanted to surprise me. Dick.”

Evan laughed, easy smile tugging at his lips once again. “Were you surprised?” he teased, knowing full well from his reaction when he entered the room that he was dumbfounded.

“Yeah,” Brock admits in a soft voice with a genuine smile to match. “But I’m also really glad that you woke up. I… I missed you,” he confesses, and Evan’s expression softens as his heart flutters in his chest.

“Yeah, I missed you too.”

* * *

 

A few days wasted by before everyone got together again, and Tyler found it oddly reminiscent. "Evan, is this the same bar I met Craig in?" he asks, eyes narrowed at the man sitting beside him. He clearly wasn't going to be happy if it was, but at this point he was just searching for confirmation.

“Is it bringing back some happy memories?” Evan smirks at him, taking a swig of beer from his bottle with his one good hand, the other still hanging loosely in front of him in the sling. “I think we might be sitting in the same seats we were sitting in on that night too,” he notes, looking around, vaguely remembering watching Craig walk into the bar from this position.

Tyler frowns at this. "You son of a bitch," he sighs, leaning back in his chair. "Now what, wait for everyone else to show up?" he asks, raising one eyebrow. He shifts in his chair, as though remembering something. "You never did tell me who you have a crush on," he turns his attention back to Evan, expecting an answer.

Evan merely laughs. “You mean you haven’t figured it out yet? Some best friend you turned to be,” he teases with a small smirk and lightly bumps into his shoulder.

Tyler scoffs. "Bitch, please, anyone with two fucking eyes can see you fell harder for Brock than I did for Craig," he mutters, sipping his beer. "Doesn't take a best friend to figure that much out."

Evan chuckles a little nervously, slightly peeved that Tyler saw right through him. “That’s debatable, especially considering you told me you loved Craig on your second date,” Evan points out.

Tyler sips his beer. "Yeah, at least I can admit it. Look at you," he swings his beer at Evan's direction, gesturing to how nervous he clearly is.

“I can admit it,” Evan claims, shifting uncomfortably on his stool, and then lowers his voice as he adds “I just don’t want to admit it somewhere he might overhear,” he says, eyes drifting to the booth Brock was chatting amicably with Lui, Nogla, and Tom in, and took a large swig of his drink.

Tyler grins at that. "Oh, sure, totally you can," he chuckles, turning to stare right at him as though challenging him. "I am totally and completely in love with Craig," he flashes a grin at him, seeming to rub it in.

Evan rolls his eyes and shoots him a slight glare. “It’s different for you. You’re already dating him, so you’re not going to risk losing anything by admitting something like that,” he says, glancing down at the bottle in his hands, poking at a corner of the label with his thumb.

Tyler sighs, looking back at Brock. "Dude, if there's anything I know with absolute certainty, that doesn't have to do with Craig," he pauses, turning back to Evan. "That dude loves you a hell of a lot more than he'll admit," he takes a swig of his beer. "Fuckin' man up and go talk to him," he nudges Evan with his leg.

There’s so much more that Evan wanted to say to him about just how much he couldn’t do that and how it wasn’t that easy, but he lets it slide, and he sighs. “Fine, but not because you told me to, but because I wanted to,” he says stubbornly and gets up off his barstool, shooting Tyler an indignant look as he made his way towards Brock, bright smile returning as he slid into the booth next to him.

Tyler was barely left alone for a moment before he felt a pair of hands cover his eyes and a chest press up against his back. “Guess who?” a very familiar voice sang.

Tyler breaks into a grin. "Hey babe," he replies, peeling Craig's hands off and spinning around to kiss him.

Craig smiles into the kiss, and after a moment, pulls away and sits down on the stool that Evan was sitting on before. “Hey,” he greets, and then smirks teasingly at him and lightly bumps against his shoulder. “Do I look scary enough?”

Tyler chuckles lightly. "How original," he remarks, leaning back in his chair and sipping at his beer, glancing at Evan.

“I still have no idea why you asked me that,” Craig admits, ordering a drink when the bartender approached him.

He sets his beer down, walking over and standing right in front of Craig, trapping him with an arm on either side of his body and leaning in. "Do I look scary enough?" he asks, face a few inches from Craig's.

Craig lightly bites his lip, but his grin never wavers. “Not really,” he says, looking up at him. “You lost all of your intimidating cred the day I saw you hug your puppy for the first time,” he tells him and gives him a light kiss on his nose.

Tyler smiles fondly at him, sitting back in his own seat. "I'm used to being terrifying, that's why I did it. Turned it into a joke, sort of. I scared the shit out of Brock a few weeks ago, and he's known me for years," he glances over to where their friends sit. "I could easily scare anyone at that table, aside from Evan," he comments, sipping at his beer.

“Oh can you now?” Craig hums in amusement as the bartender brings him his drink, and he takes a sip.

He nods. "Yeah," he shifts in his seat, as though tensely listening to something Craig is saying, face easily melting into one of pure rage. "I'm gonna need you to look really guilty in about four seconds," he warns, waiting two seconds before slamming his bottle against the counter and yelling, "He did _what_?!" and marching over to Brock, easily grabbing his collar and yanking him out of his chair.

A look of sheer panic crosses Brock’s face, and when everyone looks in his direction, Craig does as he’s told and feigns a look of guilt. Before Brock even has a chance to defend himself, Evan hops up and forces himself between them and pushes Brock behind him, broken arm be damned. “What’s going on?” he asks, gaze drifting from Tyler to Craig and back to Tyler again.

Tyler doesn't back down, however, nor does he tell them it's a joke so they can move on. "This has nothing to do with you, Vanoss. Get the _fuck_  out of my way before I put you back in the hospital," he threatens, sheer rage shining through the second he makes the mistake of looking at Craig.

Evan doesn’t move, knowing full well that Tyler wouldn’t hurt him, especially after everything they just went through, and narrows his eyes. He glances at Craig again, then looks over his shoulder at the wide eyed expression Brock was wearing, before turning back to Tyler. “...What are you doing?” he asks, suspicious.

Tyler slowly shakes his head, clenching his fist. "Really, I didn't wanna have to do this," he sighs, as though it could've easily been avoided. He eyes Evan up and down, as though gauging where it would hurt the most, and Evan steels himself in the off chance that Tyler actually took a swing at him.

Worried that maybe this was going a little too far, Craig hops off his stool and intervenes before this transitioned into an actual fight. “He’s just fucking with you,” Craig tells them with a sheepish smile, lightly tugging on Tyler’s arm.

Brock sighs in relief and his shoulders relax, relieved that he hadn’t done something wrong after all, while Evan sighs in exasperation. “Seriously, Tyler?” he asks, a little annoyed.

Tyler doesn't relax until he can feel Craig's hand on his arm, at which point he breaks into a grin. "Hell yeah, dude," he replies, letting the rage melt away to be replaced with the mirth and love that was usually found there.

“I can’t believe you sometimes,” Evan mutters as he shakes his head, and he wants to be mad at him, but he can’t suppress the small smile that tugs at his lips. “Asshole.”

Tyler rolls his eyes, resting one hand on Evan's shoulder. "Relax, your boyfriend is fine," he mutters, turning around to press a loving kiss on Craig's forehead and telling him how well he did, only to immediately rub it in his face that he succeeded in scaring his long time friends.

Evan shoots Tyler an indignant look while Brock’s cheeks heat up, and they slide back into the booth together as Craig takes Tyler’s hand and leads him back to where they were sitting before Tyler decided to prove his point by starting a commotion. “I didn’t know they were dating,” he comments idly as he sits back down, watching the way Evan and Brock mutter quietly to each other with soft smiles.

Tyler smiles at him. "They're not, not yet," he replies, watching the two with a fond smile. "I just know, cause I used to look at you with the same look Evan has on," he points out.

Craig pays a little more attention to the way Evan was staring at Brock, quietly noting his soft smile and the look of pure adoration in his eyes. “‘Used to’?” Craig scoffs, smirking up at Tyler, and teasingly bumps into his shoulder.

Tyler hums, kissing his cheek. "Yeah, when you weren't looking. Now I get to show you," he grins easily, letting his smile press into Craig's skin.

“Shut up,” Craig says, grinning to himself as he playfully shoves at Tyler’s shoulder. He slowly intertwines his fingers with Tyler’s, gaze drifting back to Brock and Evan. “So you think they’ll get together then?”

Tyler squeezes his hand. "Of course, no doubt. Totally, look at them. They're smitten," he smiles, following Craig's gaze.

“They are pretty cute,” Craig muses, and rests his head against Tyler’s shoulder, before grinning up at him. “So you’ve known both of them for years… Who do you think will make the first move?”

Tyler pauses a moment to think. "Evan, totally," he replies after a brief moment of thinking.

“Why not Brock?” Craig asks, watching them closely.

He doesn't hesitate when he responds this time. "Brock is too shy," he points out. "Too scared to ruin things."

“And Evan isn’t?” Craig presses further.

Tyler looks over to glare at him. "I know Evan. All he needs is a little encouragement," he hums.

“Well, maybe Brock just needs a little encouragement too,” Craig says with a light shrug. “I’m not going to discount him just yet.”

Tyler pauses, shifting in his seat to turn and face Craig. "No way is Brock going to ask Evan out," he tells him, seeming totally sure.

“Well I think he might!” Craig counters setting his drink down on the bar and turning to face Tyler as well.

Tyler flashes a mischievous grin at him.

"Wanna bet?"

 

**Author's Note:**

> \o/
> 
> So this fic is one myself and my good friend Sarge have been working on together over the past week or two and we finally finished it last night. This started off with the prompt 'Wanna Bet?' and then slowly morphed into the wordy behemoth you see now <3 
> 
> This fic also single-handedly made us fall in love with platonic Tyvan, so that's a thing now :P
> 
> Anyway, if you liked this, consider following us on tumblr maybe? yes
> 
> Sarge: seargantbutternipples.tumblr.com  
> Myself: brocksnuckel.tumblr.com


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